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onomic Series 
nograph Number Four 

. 

REGIONAL PLAN OF NEW 
YORK AND ITS ENVIRONS 

ECONOMIC AND INDUSTRIAL SURVEY 


THE WOOD INDUSTRIES 

M. C . MILLS 


Price, Seventy-five Cents Net 


REGIONAL PLAN OF NEW YORK 
AND ITS ENVIRONS 
130 East 22d Street, New York 


ponograph 














































THE WOOD INDUSTRIES IN 
NEW YORK AND ITS ENVIRONS 












Economic Series 
Monograph Number Four 

REGIONAL PLAN OF NEW YORK 
AND ITS ENVIRONS 

ECONOMIC AND INDUSTRIAL SURVEY 
Robert Murray Haig, Director 
Roswell C. McCrea, Consultant 


THE WOOD INDUSTRIES 
IN NEW YORK AND ITS 
ENVIRONS 

PRESENT TRENDS AND PROBABLE FUTURE 
DEVELOPMENTS 


By 

MARK CARTER MILLS, A.M. 

# n 7 . 

Lecturer in Business Administration, Columbia University 


REGIONAL PLAN OF NEW YORK 
AND ITS ENVIRONS 

130 East 22d Street, New York 

1924 









HTh 7 5*3 
.N5M5 


REGIONAL PLAN OF NEW YORK 
AND ITS ENVIRONS 

Qommittee 

Frederic A. Delano, Chairman 
Robert W. de Forest 
John M. Glenn 
Dwight W. Morrow 
Frank L. Polk 
Frederic B. Pratt 
Lawson Purdy 

General Director of Plans and Surveys 

Thomas Adams 


ECONOMIC AND INDUSTRIAL 
SURVEY 

Robert Murray Haig, Director 
Roswell C. McCrea, Consultant 


Copyright, 1924 

Committee on Regional Plan of New York and Its Environs 


©C1A793782 


JUN 14 1924 

'•■’"'ho ( 







FOREWORD 

The Committee on the Regional Plan of New York and Its Environs contem¬ 
plates the making of a comprehensive regional plan for an area of about 5,528 
square miles with a resident population approaching 9,000,000. This region is 
unique, not only in extent of area and density of buildings and population, but 
also in the variety and complexity of its physical, economic and social conditions. 
The problems that have to be dealt with in making the Plan are unprecedented 
in their character and scale. The general object to be sought in dealing with 
these problems is to make more adequate provision than has hitherto been made 
for efficiency and convenience in connection with all forms of industry and 
business, and for health and amenity in connection with living conditions. 

The first part of the task of making the Plan consists of a survey of all con¬ 
ditions that have an important bearing on the development of the region. A 
survey of many of the existing physical features has already been made and the 
results shown on maps. The present use and the adaptability for future use of 
lands within the region have been the subject of much study. Progress has been 
made in the investigation of the problems of transit, transportation and traffic. 
Studies of social conditions, in particular those relating to housing, recreation 
facilities and public health, have been pursued and valuable data have been 
accumulated. Legal and administrative problems have been investigated. 
Architectural and engineering features have been considered and tentative plans 
formulated for dealing with specific problems. All these surveys are important 
in their relation to the general plan to be prepared, but probably none is more 
so than the Economic and Industrial Survey which deals in this Monograph 
with one of a group of industries that have been the subject of special study. 

An investigation of economic conditions is essential as a preliminary in pre¬ 
paring a regional plan. Such a plan should be based on a knowledge of the 
factors that promote or retard material welfare and on the recognition, that 
comes from that knowledge, of the true economic standards that should guide 
the regional planner in his operations. 

This survey, as well as each of the others that have been made, may have 
considerable value in itself as a contribution to knowledge of conditions and 
tendencies in the New York region. The greatest value, however, of all these 
inquiries will come after each survey has been studied in relation to all other 
surveys, and the whole mass of information co-ordinated as one comprehensive 
study of the physical, economic, social, legal and administrative problems of 
the region. 

Thomas Adams 

General Director of Plans and Surveys 






TABLE OF CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Introduction. 11 

Purpose of the Investigation. 11 

Scope and Method. 11 

Criticisms and Suggestions. 12 

The Importance of the Wood-Working Industries. 13 

The Group as a Whole. 13 

The Various Industries in the Group. 14 

Lumber and Planing-Mill Products. 16 

Furniture and Refrigerators. 16 

Pianos and Organs. 17 

Cooperage and Wooden Goods Not Elsewhere Specified. 18 

Looking Glass and Picture Frames. 18 

Tobacco Pipes. 18 

Cigar Boxes. 18 

Carved and Turned Wood. 19 

Size and Location of Wood-Working Establishments in New York and its 

Environs. 20 

Classification. 20 

Frequency Grouping. 20 

The Distribution in 1900. 20 

The Distribution in 1912. 22 

The Distribution in 1917. 22 

The Distribution in 1922. 26 

Comparisons, 1900, 1912, 1917, and 1922. 30 

Distribution in Relation to Land Values. 31 

Factors Determining the Location of Plants in the Wood Industries .... 34 

Lumber Industry. 34 

Furniture and Cabinet Work. 36 

Furniture. 36 

Cabinet Work. 38 

The Piano Industry. 39 

Miscellaneous Wood Manufactures. 42 

Wood Carving and Wood Turning. 42 

Jewelry Boxes. 44 

Picture Frames. 44 

Auto Truck Bodies. 45 

Canes and Umbrella Handles. 46 

Cork. 46 

Lead Pencils. 47 

Tobacco Pipes. 48 

Reed and Rattan. 49 

Conclusions. 51 

Zone I. 51 

Zone II. 51 

Zone III. 51 

Lumber and Planing-Mill Products. 52 

Furniture and Cabinet Work. 52 

Pianos and Other Musical Instruments. 52 

All Other Wood Manufactures. 52 


7 

















































8 


CONTENTS 


TABLES IN TEXT 

PAGE 

I. Various Wood Industries in New York City Compared with Same Indus¬ 
tries in the United States as a Whole and with All Industries in New York 
City With Respect to Wage-earners and Value Added by Manufacture, 

1899-1919. 15 

II. Plants and Employes in the Wood Industries in New York and its Environs 

by Size of Plant and Zone in 1900. 21 

III. Plants and Employes in the Wood Industries in New York and its Environs 

by Type of Industry and Zone in 1900. 22 

IV. Plants and Employes in the Wood Industries in New York and its Environs 

by Type of Industry and Size of Plant in 1900. 23 

V. Plants and Employes in the Wood Industries in New York and its Environs 

by Type of Industry and Size of Plant in 1912. 24 

VI. Plants and Employes in the Wood Industries in New York and its Environs 

by Size of Plant and Zone in 1917. 25 

VII. Plants and Employes in the Wood Industries in New York and its Environs 

by Type of Industry and Zone in 1917. 26 

VIII. Plants and Employes in the Wood Industries in New York and its Environs 

by Type of Industry and Size of Plant in 1917. 27 

IX. Plants and Employes in the Wood Industries in New York and its Environs 

by Size of Plant and Zone in 1922. 28 

X. Plants and Employes in the Wood Industries in New York and its Environs 

by Type of Industry and Zone in 1922. 28 

XI. Plants and Employes in the Wood Industries in New York and its Environs 

by Type of Industry and Size of Plant in 1922. 29 

XII. Plants and Employes in the Wood Industries of New York and its Environs 

by Zones in 1900, 1912, 1917, and 1922. 30 

XIII. Plants and Employes in the Wood Industries of New York and its Environs 

by Size of Plant in 1900, 1912, 1917, and 1922. 31 

XIV. Plants and Employes in the Wood Industries of New York and its Environs 

by Type of Industry in 1900, 1912, 1917, and 1922. 32 

XV. Distribution of Plants in the Wood Industries in Manhattan by Type of 

Industry and Land Value in 1922. 32 


DIAGRAMS 

I. New York and its Environs Divided into Zones for Economic and Industrial 

Survey. Employes in Wood Industries Classified by Zones. 10 

II. A Series of Four Maps Showing Location of Plants in the Wood Industries 

with 20 or More Employes in 1900, 1912, 1917, and 1922 .Opposite 20 

III. Employes in the Wood Industries in New York and its Environs by Types 

of Industries in 1900, 1912, 1917, and 1922. 33 





















OUTSTANDING FACTS REVEALED BY THE 

INVESTIGATION 

The wood-working industries of New York are those which produce highly fabricated products. They are 
generally small in size (page 14). 

Compared with its total manufactures, the wood-working industries of the city have shown comparatively 
slight growth during the past twenty years (page 16 ). 

For twenty years past there has been a movement of wood-working plants away from the section of Manhattan 
south of 14th Street. In the same period the motor truck has made possible the removal of plants from the 
congested waterfront section of Brooklyn. During the same period Long Island City and the borough of 
Queens generally have developed as a wood-working district (Diagram II). 

Piano plants are concentrated on the West Side of Manhattan, in the Bronx, and in Queens. There is a signifi¬ 
cant grouping of furniture plants, planing mills and other wood-working establishments in the Bush Ter¬ 
minal region as well as in Long Island City. There are a number of large plants in New Jersey, but there 
is no area of marked concentration (page 26). 

Of the three zones, Zone II is the area of greatest importance in wood-working industries, although in several 
lines Zone I leads in number of establishments. These, however, are generally small (page 26). 

Wood-working plants in Manhattan south of 59th Street have steadily declined in size since 1900. Most 
of the large plants of the area are found in Zone II. Zone III has shown a slow but steady growth 
since 1900 (page 30). 

In the furniture industry of the city the production of standard factory lines has fallen off. Specialized lines, 
produced to order on a small scale, developed instead (page 36). 

An increasing proportion of lumber milling is done away from New York at the source of supply. The city’s 
larger plants are in sections—particularly in Brooklyn and in Queens—which are rapidly reaching the 
saturation point (page 34). 

Large veneer mills must have yards in which to store and cure lumber, as well as access to the water. All 
of the large mills will, therefore, eventually be pushed out of the city (page 36). 

Most of the furniture produced within the area is marketed locally (page 38). 

Cabinet work prospers in New York because of the presence of skilled labor and of a good local market 
(page 38). 

Cooperage plants are large space consumers. They locate where land values are comparatively low, as close 
as possible to the users of their product, e. g., near sugar refineries (page 45). 

The New York City region is the country’s leading producer of smoking pipes (page 48). 

The greatest number of wood plants iu Manhattan are located on land with a value ranging from $501 
to $1,000 per front foot (page 32). 







New York and Its Environs 

DIVIDED INTO ZONES FOR THE 

Economic and Industrial Survey” 


Zone I 


1922 ■BBHHHH 

I l900WSSa 2,494, 

1912 MH 2,469, 

1917 ■■■ 2,773 
1922 ■*■■4,298 


■I 21,701 
I 20,774 


^■1 17,058 
14,872 


140,731 


I 36,393 


Employes in the Wood Industries 
Classified by Zones 


Diagram I 

10 






















INTRODUCTION 


This monograph presents certain facts regard¬ 
ing the wood industries in NewYorkandits envi¬ 
rons which have a bearing upon the problem of 
planning the area. It is one of a series of twelve 
similar monographs, a complete list of which 
appears at the end of this pamphlet. It is pub¬ 
lished in the hope that it will be of interest not 
merely to professional city planners but to sev¬ 
eral other groups as well: first, to the wood 
industries because the facts regarding trends in 
those industries should aid in arriving at sound 
decisions on questions of location; second, to city 
officials, utility companies, chambers of com¬ 
merce, real estate men and others interested in 
the development of various sections of the metro¬ 
politan area because of the hints it gives regard¬ 
ing the character of the development for which 
the area appears to be destined; and third, to 
economists and to citizens generally because of 
the light it throws upon the vexed problem of 
urban land utilization. 

Purpose of the Investigation 

The investigation was undertaken primarily to 
supply an economic foundation for a compre¬ 
hensive plan of New York and its environs. The 
determination of the width of streets and the size 
of blocks, the provision of transportation facili¬ 
ties, bridges, and tunnels, the establishment of 
restricted zones, the reservation of open spaces, 
and many other problems of the regional planner 
must rest upon assumptions regarding the eco¬ 
nomic character of the uses to which the various 
sections of the area are to be devoted. To ask 
the city planner to construct a plan without 
making such assumptions is much like asking an 
architect to design a structure without knowing 
whether it is to be used as a cathedral or a loco¬ 
motive plant. To increase the accuracy of these 
necessary assumptions was the essence of the 
problem of the Economic and Industrial Survey. 

Scope and Method 

Obviously the problem here is not susceptible 
of a precise solution. The most promising way 
to gain an idea of the future economic charac¬ 
teristics of New York and its environs seemed to 


be to study (1) New York as it now is, (2) the 
changes which have recently been taking place, 
and (3) the forces which are causing those 
changes, their character, strength, and probable 
persistence. In other words, it was necessary to 
gather significant data, to analyze those data 
in the light of the recent past in the hope of 
discovering trends, to appraise these trends, and 
to draw any conclusions which might appear to 
be justified. In gathering the facts and in analyz¬ 
ing them it seemed advisable in most cases to 
proceed by industries or types of economic activ¬ 
ity rather than by subdivisions of the area. The 
most important single source of information 
proved to be the records of the factory inspection 
departments of the three states, New York, New 
Jersey, and Connecticut, into which the area 
under study extends. A card was prepared show¬ 
ing the character, location, and the number of 
employes of each industrial establishment in the 
area for each of the four years 1900, 1912, 1917, 
and 1922. 1 These data furnished the chief source 
of information for nine of the twelve studies un¬ 
dertaken, those dealing with the various indus¬ 
tries. 2 

The industries selected for intensive study 
were chosen on the basis of their size and their 
importance from the point of view of the char¬ 
acter of their space demands. Clothing and 
metals employing roughly a quarter of a million 
workers each obviously demanded attention, 
and it seemed advisable to study men’s clothing 
separately from women’s clothing. The manu¬ 
factures of food, textile, chemical, and wood prod¬ 
ucts were all industries which employed more 
than 50,000 workers. Printing and tobacco were 
both relatively small industries, but were selected, 
nevertheless, because of the inportance of the 

1 Originally the plan was to use the year 1907 in place of 
1900, thus making all the intervals five years in length. A 
lack of records for 1907, however, made it necessary to use 
the year 1900 instead. 

2 The staff of the Economic and Industrial Survey de¬ 
sires to record its thanks to the officials in the labor depart¬ 
ments in these states for the assistance they have rendered 
in making available these records, often at the cost of con¬ 
siderable personal inconvenience. The New York data for 
1900 were transcribed from the Annual Report of the Fac¬ 
tory Inspector and for 1912 from the Industrial Directory. 


12 


INTRODUCTION 


trends revealed by a preliminary survey. The 
industries which were not studied were either 
relatively unimportant in size (e. g., power), 
essentially similar to other industries which were 
studied (e. g., millinery and miscellaneous sewing 
as compared with clothing), or of a local service 
character whose space demands were to a large 
degree a mere function of population (e. g., laun¬ 
dries, cleaning and dyeing). Altogether the nine 
industrial studies covered 71.9 per cent of all of 
the plants and 79.5 per cent of all of the employes 
listed by the factory inspectors for the area. 

In addition to the nine industrial studies, in¬ 
vestigations were made of the financial district, 
the wholesale markets, and the retail shopping 
districts. The sources of information for these 
studies, which were widely scattered, are de¬ 
scribed in the monographs dealing with these 
topics. 

After the factory records had been transcribed 
and sorted by industries, they were distributed 
among the investigators. Each investigator 
first worked out the particular classification of 
the industry, the particular subdivisions of area 
into sections, and the particular frequency groups 
of employes which were most promising for the 
purposes of the analysis in hand. The cards 
were then classified according to branch of indus¬ 
try, section of area, and size of plant as measured 
by number of employes. 1 All of this information 
was tabulated and mapped. The character of 
the maps can be seen from those inserted between 
pages 20 and 21 of this monograph. They were 
prepared on transparent sheets, which could be 
superimposed on colored land-value maps in such 
a manner that a count of the symbols yielded 
data regarding the value of the land occupied by 
the plants. 

The analysis of these data in every case yielded 

1 The records of the departments of labor are not always 
entirely accurate. Comparisons among the small plants 
especially are often rendered difficult or impossible be¬ 
cause of the incompleteness of the data. It is believed, 
however, that the shortcomings are not so serious as to 
invalidate the conclusions regarding general trends. 


suggestions regarding trends of possible signifi¬ 
cance, and the investigators, by means of inter¬ 
views with authorities in the various industries, 
proceeded to check the information and to in¬ 
quire into the forces lying back of the growth and 
decline indicated by the statistics. The mono¬ 
graphs now presented are the reports of the 
findings of the investigators. 

As has been pointed out, each investigator was 
permitted to subdivide the area in the manner 
best adapted to the analysis of his particular 
problem. However, for purposes of general com¬ 
parisons it was found desirable to adopt a stan¬ 
dard subdivision of the territory into the three 
zones shown on the map on page 10. 1 All of the 
factory inspection data, including that not made 
the subject of special investigation, were sorted 
according to these three zones as well as by 
branch of industry, political subdivision, and size 
of plant as measured by number of employes. 
Tables setting forth these facts in detail are avail¬ 
able at the offices of the Plan of New York and 
its environs. The diagram at the bottom of the 
map on page 10 shows the number of wood em¬ 
ployes in each of the three zones for each of the 
four years. 

Criticisms and Suggestions 

The monographs are presented in this par¬ 
ticular form partly because of the opportunity it 
affords for criticisms and suggestions. It is hoped 
that the pamphlets will be considered tentative 
working papers rather than final products. The 
type is being held and readers are urged to com¬ 
municate their comments and corrections in 
order that these may be utilized in possible future 
editions and be available for use in the general 
volume which is now in course of preparation. 

Robert Murray Haig 

Roswell C. McCrea 

Columbia University 
May 14, 1924 

1 Mr. Mills found this standard subdivision well suited 
to the purposes of the wood study, and in this monograph 
consequently, there is no special subdivision of the area. 


THE IMPORTANCE OF THE WOOD-WORKING INDUSTRIES 


The industries that use wood as their basic 
raw material are an old and important group. To 
understand the relation of New York’s wood¬ 
working industries to its other industries and to 
the wood-working industries of the country as a 
whole, calls for a background of historical and 
statistical facts. 

The Group as a Whole 

The country’s lumber production reached its 
peak in 1907 and suffered a subsequent decline 
of 27 per cent by the end of 1920. During the 
same period, the average per capita consumption 
of lumber in this country, measured in board 
feet, declined 37 per cent. On the other hand, 
the per capita expenditure for lumber rose after 
1915. 1 Notwithstanding this recent marked de¬ 
cline in both total production and per capita con¬ 
sumption, the latter is still well above that of the 
countries of Europe, and there is no reason to 
suppose that lumber as a material for building 
and for divers manufacturing processes, will soon 
lose its importance. A comparison of the posi¬ 
tion of the lumber industry with that of other 
lines of manufacturing confirms this conclusion. 
Among 14 general groups into which the Bureau 
of the Census classified the industrial establish¬ 
ments of the United States for the Census of 
Manufactures of 1921, the group designated 
“Lumberand its Remanufactures’’ ranked fourth 
in the number ’of wage-earners engaged and 
eighth in value of products. 

In the country as a whole, the most important 
branch of the industry is that designated as 
“Lumber and Timber Products.” This designa¬ 
tion covers the products of the logging camps 
and sawmills and of planing mills operated in 
connection with sawmills. In 1921 it included 
53.96 per cent of the wage-earners and 37.15 per 
cent of the value of the products listed by the 
census under “Lumber and its Remanufactures.” 

During the early part of the nineteenth cen¬ 
tury, the State of New York was an important 
timber-producing area. In 1840 and again in 

1 United States Department of Agriculture Bulletin 
No. 1119, Lumber Cut of the United States 1870-1920, 
pages 3-7. 


1850, the state ranked first among the states of 
the Union in the value of lumber produced. By 
1860 it had dropped to second place. In 1920 
the value of the lumber produced in the state of 
New York was approximately double what it 
had been in 1860, but in rank among the states, 
New York had slipped from second to twenty- 
first place in value of products and to twenty- 
third place in quantity produced. What is true 
of New York is also true of the other states in 
the northeastern section of the country. 

Formerly sawing was an important industry in 
New York City. Logs were floated down the 
Hudson to the sawmills located along the west¬ 
ern side of Manhattan. There are still small 
sawmills scattered throughout the region em¬ 
braced by the Regional Plan, and there are a few 
larger mills in and immediately around the city, 
which saw the imported cabinet wood brought in 
through the Port of New York, but the sawing 
and cutting of logs is no longer of primary eco¬ 
nomic importance. 

Among the more important of the other manu¬ 
factures of lumber produced within the area are 
the following: planing-mill products, packing 
boxes, cigar boxes, wood turned and carved, 
furniture, refrigerators, show cases, looking glass 
and picture frames, coffins, and rattan and willow 
ware. In addition to these are certain other 
closely related products which, for the purpose of 
this study, are classed among the wood products. 
This group includes pianos, organs, pencils, 
tobacco pipes, and cork products. 

In estimating the significance of wood manu¬ 
factures in New York City, the following im¬ 
portant considerations stand out: (1) the phys¬ 
ical bulkiness of wood in proportion to its value 
and the large amount of space required for 
storage; (2) expensive transportation, since 
timber, the raw material of the more refined 
lumber manufactures, is no longer produced near 
the city; and (3) the great demand for wood 
because of its wide and diversified use. In short, 
the difficulties of the wood-using industries are 
those which invariably arise when any important 
industry, using a cheap and bulky raw material, 


13 


14 


THE WOOD INDUSTRIES IN NEW YORK AND ITS ENVIRONS 


is subjected to the tremendous pressure of popu¬ 
lation upon space resulting from the rapid growth 
of a great metropolitan center. 

The Various Industries in the Group 

The main purpose of this study of the wood¬ 
working industries is to determine the location of 
the establishments in New York and its environs, 
to discover the factors most important in deter¬ 
mining location and to learn whether there are 
trends important from the standpoint of city 
planning that point to probable changes in the 
location and future space demands of these in¬ 
dustries. But before studying in detail what has 
happened with respect to the establishments 
within the area it is important to know what 
relation the wood-working industries of New 
York bear to the total of such industries in the 
country as a whole and in the second place to 
know what relation the wood manufactures both 
collectively and singly bear to the total manu¬ 
facturing carried on in New York and its envi¬ 
rons. In short, as a background for the intelli¬ 
gent study of the position of this group of indus¬ 
tries within the city, it is important to know their 
rank and significance with l-espect to similar in¬ 
dustries found elsewhere in the country and with 
respect to the other industries within the area of 
the survey. 

Uniform material suitable as a basis for such 
comparisons has been compiled from the Census 
of Manufactures 1 and is presented in Table I. 
The table is largely self-explanatory. The de¬ 
tailed discussion of conditions within particular 
industries has been reserved for the section of the 
report which deals with the factors that deter¬ 
mine location. 

In the lack of any satisfactory method of 
measuring physical production, the figures for 
the number of wage-earners engaged and for the 
value added by manufacture are used. Figures 
for the value added by manufacture, so far as 

1 The figures for New York City for 1899 and 1904 were 
taken from the Thirteenth Census of Manufactures (1910), 
Vol. IX. The figures for 1909, 1914, and 1919 were taken 
from the 14th Census of Manufactures, 1919. The figures 
giving number of wage-earners engaged and value added by 
manufacture for the United States as a whole, were taken 
from the Abstract of Census of Manufactures for 1919. 
Such figures from the census for 1921 as were used were 
taken from the press releases of the Department of Com¬ 
merce. 


comparisons among different years are concerned, 
are not useful because affected by the changes in 
the purchasing power of the dollar; but as a 
means of making comparisons for any given year, 
as between different areas, the figures are signi¬ 
ficant. 1 

The figures given in Table I are for those in¬ 
dustries which are of sufficient importance in 
New York City to be given separate classifica¬ 
tion in the census. Lumber and other planing- 
mill products are given separately for the years 
in which figures are available. 2 With a few ex¬ 
ceptions, the products included among the se¬ 
lected industries in Table I are highly fabricated 
manufactures in which change from the raw 
material has been relatively great. This is 
especially true of carved wood, furniture, musical 
instruments,.and pipes. These industries, which 
turn out a product of relatively large value in 
comparison to bulk, are those which one would 
expect to find in a city where skilled labor is 
available but space is expensive and hard to 
secure. It will be seen from the table that for 
every year recorded, with minor exceptions, the 
percentage for value added by manufacture in 
New York City is greater than the corresponding 
percentage for wage-earners engaged. Broadly 
speaking, it may be said that, excluding lumber 
and other planing-mill products, the wood-work¬ 
ing industries found in New York City are those 
which produce highly fabricated products, and 
that of the groups selected, based on the census 

1 Owing to the duplication of values involved in the 
census figures for “value of product” it seems preferable 
in comparing industries to use statistics for “value added 
by manufacture.” The use of statistics of “value added 
by manufacture” is explained in the following paragraph 
from the Abstract of Census of Manufactures, 1919, page 11. 
“Manufacturing is a transformation of materials. The 
economic importance of the processes of manufacture can¬ 
not be judged correctly by the quantity or value of the 
products leaving the factories, but must be judged by the 
addition to the utility or to the money value of the ma¬ 
terials. The value created by the manufacturing processes 
is in most cases substantially the difference between the 
cost of the materials and the value of the products. In 
comparing manufacturing industries with one another, 
this relation of the value of finished products to the cost of 
materials must be constantly borne in mind.” 

2 Other products which are manufactured in New York 
but for which comparative figures for the whole period are 
not available include lasts, wooden packing boxes, coffins, 
pencils, and cork. It will be noted that pianos, organs and 
piano and organ materials are included in the list although 
they are not classified by the census among the remanu¬ 
factures of lumber. 


THE IMPORTANCE OF THE WOOD-WORKING INDUSTRIES 


15 


Table I.—Various Wood Industries in New York City Compared With Same Industries 
in the United States as a Whole and With all Industries in New York City With 
Respect to Wage-Earners and Value Added by Manufacture, 1899-1919 


Industry and year 

Wage-earners 

Value added by manufacture 

Number 
in New 
York City 

Per cent New 
York City to 
total in such 
plants in 
United States 

Per cent b 
New York 
City to 
total in all 
factories in 
New York 
City 

New York 
City 

(Thousands) 

Per cent New 
York City to 
total of such 
plants in 
United States 

Per cent b 
New York 
City to 
total of all 
factories in 
New York 
City 

Furniture and refrigerators 

1899 

7,179 

7.9 

1.9 

$8,054 

11.0 

1.5 


1904 

6,691 

5.9 

1.4 

8,077 

8.0 

1.1 


1909 

8,414 

6.6 

1.5 

10,708 

8.2 

1.1 


1914 

9,066 

6.8 

1.5 

12,397 

8.2 

1.2 


1919 

7,645 

5.3 

1.2 

22,427 

6.9 

.9 

Pianos, organs, and materials 

1899 

5,749 

a 

1.5 

7,227 

a 

1.3 

therefor 

1904 

7,483 

22.6 

1.6 

10,212 

26.8 

1.4 


1909 

8,056 

21.2 

1.4 

12,325 

26.8 

1.3 


1914 

9,073 

24.2 

1.5 

13,001 

27.2 

1.2 


1919 

8,087 

22.5 

1.3 

17,729 

23.1 

.7 

Cooperage and wooden goods 

1899 

1,664 

6.6 


1,282 

7.0 


not elsewhere specified 

1904 

1,539 

5.5 


1,266 

5.5 



1909 

1,111 

4.2 


1,225 

5.2 



1914 

1,350 

5.7 


1,381 

6.2 



1919 

1,030 

5.2 


2,542 

6.1 


Looking glass and picture 

1899 

1,140 

18.9 


1,517 

24.8 


frames 

1904 

978 

14.8 


1,321 

15.9 



1909 

1,180 

19.6 


1,761 

22.1 



1914 

962 

20.1 


1,419 

21.7 



1919 

866 

18.4 


2,368 

21.2 


Tobacco pipes 

1899 

837 

52.8 


871 

63.8 



1904 

1,106 

56.8 


894 

60.4 



1909 

1,582 

57.0 


1,729 

60.6 



1914 

1,430 

60.7 


1,046 

54.7 



1919 

1,749 

68.9 


6,700 

83.1 


Cigar boxes 

1899 

906 

19.7 


600 

21.4 



1904 

1,442 

22.9 


1,007 

25.3 



1909 

1,256 

20.5 


927 

22.2 



1914 

1,041 

17.8 


768 

18.9 



1919 

744 

14.3 


1,273 

18.8 


Turned and carved wood 

1899 

526 

4.5 


643 

7.6 



1904 

379 

2.6 


511 

4.4 



1909 

828 

5.9 


1,045 

8.4 



1914 

284 

2.4 


415 

4.2 



1919 

306 

2.9 


902 

4.9 


Total above selected wood 

1899 

a 

a 

a 

. . a 

a 

a 

manufactures 

1904 

19,618 

9.6 

4.2 

23,288 

12.4 

3.3 


1909 

22,427 

10.1 

4.1 

29,720 

13.0 

3.2 


1914 

23,206 

10.6 

4.0 

30,427 

12.5 

2.9 


1919 

20,427 

9.2 

3.2 

53,941 

11.1 

2.2 

Lumber and planing-mill 

1914 

4,489 

4.7 


6,018 

4.9 


products 

1919 

2,923 

3.4 


7,863 

3.8 



a Complete data not available. k Where omitted, percentages are less than ^ of one per cent. 


























16 


THE WOOD INDUSTRIES IN NEW YORK AND ITS ENVIRONS 


list, New York City produces approximately ten 
per cent of the total manufactures of the United 
States. 

It will be noted that, in 1904, the wage-earners 
engaged in the selected groups of manufactures 
constituted 4.2 per cent of the total number of 
wage-earners in the city, while the value added 
by manufacture was only 3.3 per cent of the total 
for all manufactured products. The fact that 
the percentage for the wage-earners of the city 
engaged in the wood-working industries was in 
almost every'case greater than the corresponding 
percentage for value added by manufacture by 
the same industries, gives emphasis to the fact 
that wood is a relatively low-cost raw material. 

Because of the change in the general price 
level, comparisons between the value of manu¬ 
factures in 1904 and 1919 are not as good an 
indication of what has happened as are com¬ 
parisons between the number of wage-earners 
engaged. Allowing for this change, however, it 
is worth noting that while the value of all manu¬ 
factured products in the city increased 244 per 
cent from 1904 to 1919, the value of the selected 
group of wood manufactures increased 143 per 
cent. During the same period, the number of 
wage-earners engaged in all the industries of the 
city increased 37 per cent while the number of 
wage-earners engaged in the selected group of 
wood-working industries increased only 4 per 
cent. 

Lumber and Planing-mill Products .—Because 
of a change in the census classification, compara¬ 
tive figures for the class designated, “Lumber, 
planing-mill products, .not including planing- 
mills connected with sawmills” are not available 
for the years prior to 1914. As described by the 
census, the establishments included in this classi¬ 
fication manufacture principally dressed lumber, 
the principal items of which are sash, doors, 
blinds, interior woodwork, and moldings. Among 
the other products included are flooring, ceiling, 
wainscoting, shelving, door jambs and facings, 
mantels, stairs, stair-rails, columns, wooden 
tanks, clothes poles, portable houses, box shooks 
and cratings, and greenhouse construction mate¬ 
rial. The manufacture of veneer, which is of 
considerable importance in New York because of 
the presence in this area of mills which handle 


the imported cabinet woods, such as mahogany, 
is not included in this classification but is con¬ 
sidered in the classification of lumber and timber 
products. Table I shows a decided decline in the 
number of workers—from 4,489 in 1914 to 2,923 
in 1919. In value of products a large increase is 
shown, but, owing to marked fluctuations in busi¬ 
ness conditions during the period, this is not so 
important as the fact that in 1914 New York con¬ 
tributed 4.9 per cent of the value added by manu¬ 
facture to the planing-mill products of the coun¬ 
try, while in 1919 New York produced only 3.8 
per cent of the total. In the lumber trade this 
decline in the production of planing-mill products 
in New York City is attributed to the high cost 
of space and to high transportation charges. The 
large jobbers who take the contracts for office 
buildings and apartment houses get their ma¬ 
terial from the South and from the West. This 
means that they require large storage space but 
do little actual manufacturing. 

Furniture and Refrigerators .—The term “furni¬ 
ture” as here used includes wood furniture, that 
made from rattan and willow, store and office 
fixtures, and metal furniture. The latter, while 
not a wood product, is a product of furniture 
manufacturers and as it is handled through the 
same trade channels as the other furniture, it is 
extremely difficult to segregate it. The term 
“refrigerators” includes the manufacture of ice¬ 
boxes and refrigerating show-cases and counters, 
as well as of refrigerators proper. 

Based upon the value of products, the princi¬ 
pal furniture-producing states are the following: 
New York, Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, Pennsyl¬ 
vania, Wisconsin, Ohio, and North Carolina. 
“While New York heads the list in value of prod¬ 
ucts, it is possible that other states produce a 
larger number of pieces and consequently supply 
furniture to a greater number of persons, since 
the value of product in New York per unit or per 
piece is undoubtedly higher than in some of the 
other centers where there is specialization in 
cheaper grades.” 1 

The report of the Bureau of the Census for 
1921 covering establishments with products 

1 Report of the Federal Trade Commission on House 
Furnishings Industries, Vol. I, Household Furniture, 
page 47. January 17, 1923. 


THE IMPORTANCE OF THE WOOD-WORKING INDUSTRIES 


17 


valued at $5,000 or more shows that in 1921 
New York, the leading state in the industry, 
produced 19 per cent of the total value of the 
furniture of the country. 

There are five generally recognized furniture 
manufacturing centers in the United States. 
These are: Grand Rapids, Michigan; James¬ 
town, New York; Evansville, Indiana; Rock¬ 
ford, Illinois; and High Point, North Carolina. 
It is not possible to segregate the census figures 
that show the exact relationship between James¬ 
town and New York City as the leading furniture 
manufacturing centers in the state, but in the 
furniture trade Jamestown is considered more 
important than New York. Grouping furniture 
and refrigerators together, the relation of New 
York City to the rest of the state, Jamestown 
included, may be understood from the following 
census figures for 1919: of a total of 707 estab¬ 
lishments in the state, 479 (67 per cent) were 
found in New York City, and of a total of 22,693 
wage-earners, 7,645 (33 per cent) were in New 
York City, and while the city used only 8,313 
(22 per cent) of the 37,872 primary horse-power 
used in the furniture industry of the state, it 
contributed $42,591,000 (41 per cent) of the 
$103,416,000 value of the products in the state. 
Considering New York State outside of the city 
as characteristic of the country as a whole, these 
figures emphasize certain outstanding character¬ 
istics of the furniture industry of the city. One 
is the large number of small establishments, 
another is the use of much skilled hand labor, 
and the comparatively small use made of power 
machinery, and the third is the high value of the 
New York product in proportion to the wage- 
earners engaged and the horse-power used. 

The number of wage-earners engaged in the 
furniture industry in New York City has re¬ 
mained relatively stable over an extended period, 
the number engaged in 1919 being very nearly 
the same as that in 1899. With the exception of 
the figures for 1904, the position of New York 
compared with the rest of the country shows a 
slow but steady decline in the percentage both 
of wage-earners and of value added by manu¬ 
facture. It will be noticed that in each year the 
percentage for value added by manufacture is 
higher than the percentage for number of wage- 


earners. In comparison to other industries in 
New York City, the manufacture of furniture 
and refrigerators has lost position. It is now 
relatively less important than it was in 1899. 

Pianos and Organs }—A few pianos were made 
in America before 1800 and by 1850 American 
pianos had won a recognized place as the leading 
competitors of the English-made instruments. 2 
New York and Boston were the outstanding 
centers of manufacturing which developed early, 
with different methods of manufacture and some¬ 
what different traditions. While the New York 
industry was influenced to a great extent by the 
German tradition, and many if not most of the 
workers were German, the Boston industry was 
established in the English tradition and the 
workers were predominantly American. As the 
country has developed, other cities have become 
important piano manufacturing centers, and to¬ 
day Chicago is one of the greatest. It will be 
seen from Table I that the number of wage-earners 
engaged in the piano industry has remained 
very nearly constant. It is also apparent that 
there has been no important change in the rela¬ 
tion of the piano industry of New York City to 
that of the rest of the country. It is a significant 
fact that the percentage for value added by 
manufacture in New York has throughout the 
period been substantially greater than the per¬ 
centage for wage-earners engaged. This is pri¬ 
marily due to the fact that New York piano 
manufacturers, as a group, have emphasized 
quality rather than quantity. This result is no 
doubt partly fortuitous; but the main contrib¬ 
uting factors are clearly these: a good local 
market, the availability of expert technicians and 
of skilled labor, the remoteness of sources of 
supply of raw materials and the high cost of 
manufacturing space. 

In comparing the piano industry with the total 
manufacturing of the city it will be noted that as 

1 The figures in Table I include data for all the various 
types of pianos and organs, and for the various parts used 
in their manufacture. Among the more important of the 
parts included are plates, keys, actions, keyboards, cases, 
hammers, sounding boards, organ reeds, pipes, and pipe- 
organ actions. 

2 A brief historical and descriptive sketch and a somewhat 
more elaborate statistical study of the piano industry as it 
existed in the United States prior to 1900 is given in the 
Twelfth Census of the United States, 1900, Vol. X, Man¬ 
ufactures, Part IV. 


18 


THE WOOD INDUSTRIES IN NEW YORK AND ITS ENVIRONS 


in the case of furniture, the percentage of the 
total value contributed by the piano industry is in 
every case less than the corresponding figure for 
number of wage-earners involved. It is interest¬ 
ing to observe how nearly parallel the furniture 
and the piano industries have run in the past 
twenty-five years, both in respect to the number 
of wage-earners involved and in their relation to 
the aggregate industry of the city. 

Cooperage and Wooden Goods Not Elsewhere 
Specified. —“Cooperage” in the census classi¬ 
fication, includes the manufacture of casks, kegs, 
barrels, hogsheads, wooden tubs, tanks, vats, 
and similar articles from staves. “Wooden 
goods not elsewhere specified” includes the man¬ 
ufacture of articles for kitchen, dairy, and mis¬ 
cellaneous uses. With few exceptions the articles 
included in this classification are small and are 
made from native woods by automatic or semi¬ 
automatic machinery. Such articles are usually 
made near the source of raw material, so that 
New York City is not an important center for 
their manufacture. The local cooperage indus¬ 
try, on the other hand, is primarily a subsidiary 
one, serving other industries in the city, such as 
sugar refineries, which use cooperage products. 

It will be seen from the table that there has 
been a marked decline in the number of wage- 
earners engaged in the manufacture of cooperage 
and wooden products, not elsewhere specified, in 
New York City. As in the case of the other wood 
manufactures, the percentage for value added by 
New York industries is slightly greater than the 
corresponding figure for number of wage-earners 
engaged. This is evidence of quality rather than 
quantity production on the part of New York 
manufacturers. 

Looking Glass and Picture Frames. —Because 
of the variety of the materials used in the 
manufacture of frames for mirrors and pictures, 
some establishments are included which use 
materials other than wood. The classification 
includes the manufacture of all kinds of frames, 
including paper, plush, velvet, wood, or metal, 
for mirrors, pictures and photographs. The cen¬ 
sus figures include only wholesale manufacturing 
establishments and omit the small shops which 
make frames on order. There are a number of 
reasons why New York occupies an important 


place in this industry. As an art center it is an 
important market for frames; there is a local 
supply of the type of labor fitted for such work; 
and New York is an important port of entry for 
the foreign cabinet woods of which many of these 
frames are made. The table indicates a gradual 
decline in the number of workers engaged in 
the industry in the country as a whole, but the 
figures do not afford a decisive index of the rela¬ 
tive position of New York’s share of the industry. 
As in the wood industries, previously reviewed, 
the percentage for value added by manufacture in 
New York is invariably higher than the corre¬ 
sponding percentage for wage-earners engaged. 
The census figures for the entire country show 
that 1889 was the peak year both for number of 
establishments and for wage-earners, and that 
there has since been a gradual decline. It should 
be recalled that the lavish ornamentation of 
home furnishings was rampant in 1889. 

Tobacco Pipes. —Among the materials used in 
the manufacture of pipes are apple and briar 
wood, clay, corncob, dogwood, hazelwood, hick¬ 
ory, meerschaum, and rosewood. 

If, to the figures for New York City, are added 
those for the pipe manufacturing establishments 
located in northern New Jersey, the dominant 
position of New York in the pipe industry would 
be still more clearly shown. A few comparatively 
large plants manufacture most of the product. 
The percentage for value added by manufacture 
in New York City is seen to be higher than the per¬ 
centage for wage-earners engaged except in 1914 . 

Cigar Boxes. —The cigar boxes to which the 
data in Table I refer are those made from wood. 
There has been an increasing use of paper and 
metal cigar boxes and as these are not classified 
separately in the census, it is impossible to deter¬ 
mine how many workers have gone into the man¬ 
ufacture of substitute types of box during the 
period of decline in the number of wage-earners 
engaged in the manufacture of wooden boxes. 
Pennsylvania was, in 1919, the leading state in 
the manufacture of wooden cigar boxes, with 
New York second, and Florida third. The trend 
of the production in New York City has followed 
very closely the trend of the production of cigars 
in and immediately around the city. While there 
has been a decrease in the number of wage- 


THE IMPORTANCE OF THE WOOD-WORKING INDUSTRIES 


19 


earners engaged in the manufacture of wooden 
cigar boxes in the country as a whole, the de¬ 
crease in New York City has been still more 
marked. 

Turned and Carved Wood .—This classification 
includes all of those articles which are turned 
on lathes, carved by hand or machinery, or sawed 
by scroll or jig-saws. Among such products are 
grille work; handles for brooms, axes, hammers, 
cutlery, etc.; rolls, wheels, spools, bobbins, bowl¬ 
ing balls, brackets, legs for furniture, and floor 
lamps. The carved articles include architectural 
woodwork, furniture, picture frames, and many 
other articles used for decorative purposes. 

New York, because of its remoteness from 
sources of lumber supply, is not well suited to be 
a center of wood-turning on a large scale. The 
wood-turning establishments which are found in 


the city are for the most part small and of the 
subsidiary type. They are engaged in doing 
work for other wood-using industries, such as the 
furniture industry, or in making highly special¬ 
ized products calling for skilled labor. 

Hand carving is declining in importance both 
in the city and in the country at large, perhaps 
because of a change in popular taste and because 
of a lack of trained carvers. In the execution 
of lower-grade work, machinery has taken the 
place of manual processes. Judged by number 
of wage-earners engaged and of space used, the 
importance of the industry in the city is almost 
negligible; but it presents a most interesting 
problem which is discussed more fully in a later 
section of this report. 1 

1 See page 42. 


THE SIZE AND LOCATION OF WOOD-WORKING ESTAB¬ 
LISHMENTS IN NEW YORK AND ITS ENVIRONS 


In this section, the purpose is to assemble and 
analyze the available statistics dealing with the 
size and location of wood-working plants in the 
New York area over a term of years. The data 
are largely drawn from the factory inspection 
records. 1 These figures have been uniformly 
gathered year after year and they afford a fairly 
accurate picture of the development of wood¬ 
working industries in the area. 

Classification 

The first difficult problem connected with the 
study involved a choice of classification. The 
one chosen was adapted from that used by the 
Department of Labor of the State of New York 
in the Industrial Directory of 1913. Because of 
the relative unimportance of sawmill products 
in the region, the seven principal classes of wood 
manufactures used by the Department of Labor 
were reduced to six, as follows: 

1. Lumber and Planing-Mill Products 

(a) Dressed lumber 

(b) House trim 

(c) Packing boxes, crates, etc. 

2. Furniture and Cabinet Work 

(a) Furniture and upholstery 

(b) Desk and office furniture 

(c) Cabinet work 

(d) Mirror and picture frames 

(e) Caskets 

3. Pianos and other Musical Instruments 

4. Cooperage 

5. Pencils, Pipes, Cork, Brooms, Rattan and 

Fiber Goods 

(a) Pulp and fiber goods 

(b) Mats, baskets, etc. 

(c) Brooms 

(d) Cork cutting and cork goods 

(e) Smoking pipes 

(f) Pencils and pen holders 

6 . Miscellaneous wood products 

For purposes of mapping, the six were further 
reduced to four groups, and classes 4, 5, and 6 
were placed in one group, designated on the maps 
as “All Other Wood Products.” 

1 The factory inspection departments give a wide and 
inclusive meaning to the term “manufacturing.” They 
include, for example, the assembly of certain products al¬ 
ready fabricated outside the city and shipped in “ knocked- 
down” form. 


Frequency Grouping 

In the lack of data showing the space require¬ 
ments of each establishment, the number of em¬ 
ployes is the best available means of measuring 
the size of the plants. Most plants engaged in 
the manufacture of articles of which wood is the 
chief material, are relatively small and the group¬ 
ings which seem most significant are 1-4, 5-9, 
10-19, 20-39, 40-59, 60-99, 100-249, and 250 and 
over. However, for the purpose of comparison 
with other studies in the series, the data are also 
presented in tables with groupings of 1-19, 20-49, 
50-99, 100-499, 500-999, and 1,000 and over. 
The following method of summarizing and pre¬ 
senting results has been adopted. After com¬ 
piling the statistical data in tables, plants having 
20 or more employes were located on area maps, 
and each of the major types of industry is repre¬ 
sented by a different symbol. Plants falling in 
the different groups, according to number of em¬ 
ployes, are indicated by symbols of different 
sizes. 

Change in number and local distribution of 
wood-using industries in New York and its en¬ 
virons for 1900, 1912, 1917, and 1922, are shown 
in the series of tables and maps which follow. 
The maps cover only plants having more than 20 
employes. A complete understanding of the sit¬ 
uation can be gained only by comparing the maps 
and the accompanying tables. It should be borne 
in mind throughout that small-sized plants are 
the rule in the wood-working industries of New 
York City. Furniture shops with less than ten 
employes are numerous, but these produce furni¬ 
ture and cabinet work of the highest quality. 

The Distribution in 1900 

The 1900 map (Diagram II) reveals a striking 
concentration of plants producing furniture in 
Manhattan south of 14th Street and east of 
Broadway. This is one of the principal manu¬ 
facturing centers in the city. It contained also 
the homes of many of the Germans who, prior to 
1900, were the most important racial group found 
in the wood-working industries. 


20 


DIAGRAM II 

A SERIES OF FOUR MAPS 

SHOWING 

LOCATION OF 

PLANTS IN THE WOOD INDUSTRIES 
WITH 20 OR MORE EMPLOYES 
IN NEW YORK AND ITS 
ENVIRONS 

IN 

1900 

1912 

1917 

1922 


Character of symbols indicating type of industry 
Size of symbols indicating size of plant as measured by 
number of employes 

From data gathered from the records of the factory 
inspection departments of New York, New 
Jersey, and Connecticut 









WALLIN6T0N 

♦ 

Paterson 
A a ♦ 
Hackensack 


Lyndhurst 


■ 

♦ 

r 

5 

o 

« 

to 

Z 

DRNWALL 

LANDING 

o 

a : 

z> 

CO 

S 

Ui 

!. 

Z 

£ 

z* 

CD 

SB 

i 

o 

z 

z 

CO 

< 

Ui 

x: 

O 

z 

ir> 

o 

o 



west orange 

▲ 

Orange ♦ ♦ 


Newark 

aOI»*a 

• •O/jk&0 • ■ 


Greenville 

a 


Garwood A 

Rahway 

a A 

Menlo P'k a 
Keasbey <W 

New Brunswick 

<mAa« 

Lorillard 
Matawan • 
Red Bank ♦ ♦ 
Long Branch 

<> » 

Englishtown* 

Asbury P’k ^ 

Earmingdale 

a 



1912 

WOOD PLANTS 


Bridgeport 

♦ •<) 

Norwalk ♦ 

Stamford 

EPortChester 

o 


Whites tone 
College P’t» 


manhasset* 

Patchogue 

<) 


Flushing 

a • 


Jamaica 

. 19 . 


Merrick ■ 


FarRgckaway 





















































J d . 5 

2 < — jo 

> Z £ M 

5 (Ol O Q W 

i I < 5 

lu cl ut ae 

Z oy cQ O 


UJ 

© z ^ 

z §* * 


* tf> 4 ♦ 

o Z- X- ^ UI 

Z s I K- “ | I £ t 

o q « j: " 5 i p .< 


Paterson 

> a [] [J i . 

*♦ ♦♦ 

Boonton * 
Clifton <> 
Walungton 

Montclair 

Whippany ^ 
Belleville A 
Morristown ♦ 

Lyndhurst 

• 

west orange 

▲ 

Orange »<> 

East Orange 

♦ 


Harrison ■ 

Newark 

♦ bA Ab 

IiM^N • 

.oa • a • 


Elizabeth 

♦ 

Bayonne »♦ 

Garwood 

▲ A 

Plainfield* 

Rahwaya.. 

Manville 

■ « 

Carteret 
Port Reading 

<> 

Sewaren ♦ 

Perth Amboy 

A 

New Brunswick 

«♦ 4 <> a » 

Matawan ■ 
Red Bank* 

Long Branch 

* 

Asbury Pk ♦ 



Bridgeport 

*0<)AO 


Norwalk 

Stamford 

* ® 

E.Port Chester 

♦ 

PortChester 


Whitestone^ 
College Pt* 
Patchogue 


Flushing ♦ 


1922 

WOOD PLANTS 


Queens ♦ ♦ 

Jamaica 

♦ ■<> 


Merrick 


FarRockaway 

0 

Arverne <> 





















































- 








•V . • .v, .<r. 


5: .. • . t V ' 











■ if.': 

' 












■ 

4 












♦ 

. 
















h v. aQ i Q 






. 












- 

£ J c 
- $ ' 

» ■' 

■ £.- ■ ■: ■ 


- ■ •• • 


SU a 




1 w* 


..t ■; • 








































THE SIZE AND LOCATION OF WOOD-WORKING ESTABLISHMENTS 


21 


Table II.— Plants and Employes in the Wood Industries in New York and Its Environs by 

Size of Plant and Zones 1 in 1900 


Plants 


Number of employes 
per plant 

Number 

Per cent 

Zone I 

Zone II 

Zone III 

Total 

Zone I 

Zone II 

Zone III 

Total 

1-19. 

736 

286 

83 

1,105 

75.7 

58.1 

77.6 

70.3 

20-49. 

154 

123 

15 

292 

15.9 

25.0 

14.0 

18.6 

50-99. 

41 

43 

5 

89 

4.2 

8.8 

4.7 

5.7 

100-499. 

34 

34 

4 

72 

3.5 

6.9 

3.7 

4.6 

500-999. 

5 

6 


11 

.5 

1.2 


.7 

1,000 and over. 

2 



2 

.2 



.1 

Total. 

972 

492 

107 

1,571 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 


Employes 


1-19. 

20-49. 

50-99. 

100-499. 

500-999. 

1,000 and over. 

5,069 

4,518 

2,567 

5,666 

1,546 

2,335 

2,376 

3,484 

2,821 

5,676 

4,447 

592 

474 

339 

1,089 

8,037 

8,476 

5,727 

12,431 

5,993 

2,335 

23.4 

20.8 

11.8 

26.1 

7.1 

10.8 

12.7 
18.5 
15.0 
30.1 

23.7 

23.7 

19.0 

13.6 

43.7 

18.7 

19.7 
13.3 
28.9 
14.0 

5.4 

Total.. 

21,701 

18,804 

2,494 

42,999 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 


a For boundaries of zones see map page 10. 

The map also shows the location of numerous 
wood-working plants along the East River. 
Some of these are planing-mills, others are furni¬ 
ture factories, and still others are engaged in the 
production of miscellaneous wood products. A 
considerable group of factories in the different 
lines is shown in the manufacturing district on 
the middle west side of Manhattan. Among 
these, piano factories stand out in importance 
but do not appear so concentrated as they do on 
the maps for later years 

The map for 1900 shows very few wood-work- 
ing plants in Queens, where a large development 
has taken place in recent years. In general, the 
plants in Brooklyn follow the shore line, with 
little growth in the area adjoining the Bush Ter¬ 
minal. There are relatively few plants in the 
Newtown Creek district. Certain facts relative 
to the distribution of the plants are more readily 
ascertained from the tables which follow than 
from the maps. 

In 1900 plants with less than 20 employes pre¬ 
dominated in all zones, though less markedly in 


Zone II than in the others (Table II). Whereas 
75.7 per cent of all the plants in Zone I had less 
than 20 workers each, these establishments em¬ 
ployed only 23.4 per cent of the workers. In 
Zone II, 58.1 per cent of the plants contained 12.7 
per cent of the employes. In Zone III the corre¬ 
sponding percentages were very similar to those 
in Zone I, 77.6 per cent of the plants having less 
than 20 employes and employing 23.7 per cent of 
the workers. 

In every industry except cooperage, Zone I 
contained in 1900 more plants than either of the 
other zones (Table III). When it is remembered 
that Zone I is Manhattan south of 59th Street, it 
will be recognized how thoroughly in 1900 the 
wood industries were concentrated in a thickly 
populated district. The number of cooperage 
plants in Zone I and Zone II were equal. How¬ 
ever, the 26 cooperage plants in Zone I employed 
only 15.9 per cent of the workers while the same 
number of plants in Zone II employed 84.1 per 
cent. Zone II outranked the other zones also in 
the number of employes in the piano industry and 



























































22 


THE WOOD INDUSTRIES IN NEW YORK AND ITS ENVIRONS 


Table III.— Plants and Employes in the Wood Industries in New York and Its 
Environs by Type of Industry and Zone in 1900 


Plants 


Industry 

Number 

Per cent 

Zone I 

Zone II 

Zone III 

Total 

Zone I 

Zone II 

Zone III 

Total 

Lumber and planing-mill products. . . 

163 

158 

79 

400 

40.8 

39.5 

19.7 

100.0 

Furniture and cabinet work. 

458 

131 

12 

601 

76.2 

21.8 

2.0 

100.0 

Pianos and other musical instruments 

88 

67 

5 

160 

55.0 

41.9 

3.1 

100.0 

Cooperage. 

26 

26 


52 

50.0 

50.0 


100.0 

Pencils, pipes, and cork. 

49 

23 

1 

73 

67.1 

31.5 

1.4 

100.0 

Miscellaneous wood products. 

188 

87 

10 

285 

66.0 

30.5 

3.5 

100.0 

Total. 

972 

492 

107 

1,571 

61.9 

31.3 

6.8 

100.0 


Employes 


Lumber and planing-mill products. . . 

4,465 

5,390 

1,224 

11,079 

40.3 

48.6 

11.1 

100.0 

Furniture and cabinet work. 

9,072 

2,116 

533 

11,721 

77.4 

18.1 

4.5 

100.0 

Pianos and other musical instruments 

3,645 

5,503 

642 

9,790 

37.2 

56.2 

6.6 

100.0 

Cooperage. 

367 

1,943 


2,310 

15.9 

84.1 


100.0 

Pencils, pipes, and cork. 

2,127 

1,998 

15 

4,140 

51.4 

48.2 

.4 

100.0 

Miscellaneous wood products. 

2,025 

1,854 

80 

3,959 

51.2 

46.8 

2.0 

100.0 

Total. 

21,701 

18,804 

2,494 

42,999 

50.5 

43.7 

5.8 

100.0 


the lumber industry. Zone I stood first in all the 
other lines. 

While 70.3 per cent of all the establishments 
in the wood-working industries had less than 20 
employes each, such establishments employed 
only 18.7 per cent of the workers. In many ways 
the most important of the large-scale plants were 
those having 100 to 499 employes, and while this 
class of plants numbered only 4.6 per cent of the 
total, it included 28.9 per cent of the employes. 

The Distribution in 1912 

The map (Diagram II) shows that by the year 
1912 the concentration of plants in Manhattan 
below 14th Street was beginning to be broken. 
Furniture factories were leaving the district. In 
1912 plants in Brooklyn were less concentrated 
on the waterfront though still within trucking 
distance of the water terminals. Long Island 
City is shown to have developed considerably 
since 1900. From Table V 1 it is seen that in 1912 

1 The tables for 1912 are fewer than those for the other 
years because of the difficulty of making a separation of 
the small plants between Zone I and Zone II. 


in every group of industries, except that of pianos 
and other musical instruments, at least 75 per 
cent of the establishments had less than 20 em¬ 
ployes. However, all of these small plants to¬ 
gether (81.3 per cent) employed only 27.3 per 
cent of the total number of workers. When the 
plants with more than 20 employes are consid¬ 
ered, taking all the industries together, the estab¬ 
lishments in the group having from 100 to 499 
employes are shown to employ 30.5 per cent of 
all the workers. Plants of this size stand out, 
particularly in the piano industry, constituting 
17.9 per cent of the number of establishments 
and employing 49.3 per cent of the workers. 

The Distribution in 1917 

The 1917 map, in contrast with that for 1922, 
shows that there was still a marked concentration 
of plants on Manhattan Island below 14th Street. 
Comparing the map of 1917 with that of 1912, 
growth is shown to have taken place in Long 
Island City and in the Borough of Queens in gen¬ 
eral. This is especially true of the increase of 
plants producing furniture and other cabinet work. 



























































Table IV. —Plants and Employes in the Wood Industries in New York and its Environs by Type of Industry and 

Size of Plant in 1900 

Plants 


THE SIZE AND LOCATION OF WOOD-WORKING ESTABLISHMENTS 


23 



Total 

N5\ON'ONh 
© 00 to. TjJ 

4^ rH 

100.0 


Miscel¬ 

laneous 

wood 

prod¬ 

ucts 

• • 

oi cn ^ h 

00 rH 

© 

© 

o 


Pencils, 

pipes 

and 

cork 

rHOOO\rHN^ 

4^ 4^ vd CN rH* 

VO rH 

o 

© 

© 

’er cent 

Cooper¬ 

age 

lO CN NO 00 O' • 

rH* rH OS* lO rH* * 

VO CN 

100.0 


Pianos 

and 

other 

musical 

instru¬ 

ments 

51.9 
18.1 

11.9 

13.7 

4.4 

100.0 


Furni¬ 

ture 

and 

cabinet 

work 

nioooo • • 

^ 00 CO cd 

4^ rH 

© 

© 

© 


Lumber 

and 

planing- 

mill 

prod¬ 

ucts 

lOMiOCSCOfO 

VO CN 

© 

8 


Total 

U)CNOMtH(N 
OOvOONH 
rH CN 

1,571 


Miscel¬ 

laneous 

wood 

prod¬ 

ucts 

io cn tJh . . 

c OfOH • • 

CN 

285 


Pencils, 

pipes 

and 

cork 

ON CO lO CO CM rH 
^ rH 

73 

1-4 

J8 

E 

3 

[z; 

Cooper¬ 

age 

co rH 

52 


Pianos 

and 

other 

musical 

instru¬ 

ments 

fO On On CN 4^ • 

00 CN rH CN 

© 

VO 


Furni¬ 

ture 

and 

cabinet 

work 

On rH 00 co • • 

^ rH 

601 


Lumber 

and 

planing- 

mill 

prod¬ 

ucts 

OOf^ONHH 

lOONfOrH 

CN 


Number of employes 
per plant 

1-19. 

20-49. 

■ 50-99. 

100-499. 

500-999. 

1,000 and over. 

Total. 


4^4>. co On © 

OO O' co OO io 

hhhinh 

© 

8 



OvNqoo • • 

© 

On CN 00 00 ’ * 

©* 

CO CN rH rH 

© 



oo © vo co oo *o 

© 

00 On 4^ CO H On 

©* 

rH CO CN 

© 



>oo\qNfo • 

00 4^ CO 00* rH* 

© 


§ 

»o q CN 00 On • 
vd 00 CN © r-J ’ 

© 

8 

rH^ro 



CO ^ CN H • • 

© 

4^ 4-^ © id 

©* 

CN CN th co 

© 



O 00 4^ TtJ ^ rH 

© 

oo* cd id © 

© 

rH CN rH CN rH 

© 



VO 4^ rH CO »0 
co 4^ CN CO On co 
© 4^» rji Os co 

1 

oo* oo* id* of id* cn** 

CN* 



©NOO^ • . 

ON 

GO O' co rf • • 

io 

10 00 4^ 4^ 

On^ 

t_h 

CO 

4^» CN VO © lO © 

© 

NO 4^ rH IT) rH CN 


CO CO CO lO CO CN 


rH rH 

rjT 

vo^r^roco . 

© 

ON rH rH CO lO * 


h^co^On 

co 


CN* 

^ 4^- NO oo lO • 

© 

CO CO Ov On CN • 

ON 

NO 00 HO^H 

4''» 

rH CO CO 

oC 

lO Th © CN • • 


On rH O rH • . 

CN 

rH^CN CN H 

4 s ** 

cd'cd'r-T'^ 

vH* 



LO CN CO -^ © lo 

On 

VO ^ NO ON © rH 

4— 

© 4^ Ov to VO rH 

©^ 

CN* CN* rH* CN* r-T 




. u 


.CL> 


.>• 


. o 


• • • On On *0 


O' O' On On On jh 
t-h On ^ On 3 

o 

-LA888® 

H 

CN lO © © © 
rH lO © 


r-T 










































































Table V.—Plants and Employes in the Wood Industries in New York and its Environs by Type of Industry and Size of 

Plant in 1912 


24 


THE WOOD INDUSTRIES IN NEW YORK AND ITS ENVIRONS 



Total 

*-H © CO 

00 y-t 

o 

d 

o 


Miscel¬ 

laneous 

wood 

prod¬ 

ucts 

00 00 TJH O • • 

O On Nh 

CO 

© 

d 

o 


Pencils, 

pipes 

and 

cork 

CO O 04 00 NO t-h 

OOO^^HH 

o 

d 

o 

Per cent 

Cooper¬ 

age 

CO N H M . 

XT) 00 CO N0 H 

!>• 

© 

d 

o 

Pianos 

and 

other 

musical 

instru¬ 

ments 

O oo U- ON ^ lO 

O 04 

CS -rH t-H 

o 

d 

o 


Furni¬ 

ture 

and 

cabinet 

work 

NOOK • • 

NNCOH 

00 

o 

d 

o 


Lumber 

and 

planing- 

mill 

prod¬ 

ucts 

^ ^ On 04 • 

co io CO 

E- i-H 

o 

d 

o 


Total 

2,415 

312 

130 

101 

9 

3 

2.970 



Miscel¬ 

laneous 

wood 

prod¬ 

ucts 

O CO CN »0 • • 

04 ^ ■*-! • • 

04 

On 


Pencils, 

pipes 

and 

cork 

CO ON 00 ON CO 04 

^ T-t 

On 

oo 

Sf umber 

Cooper¬ 

age 

^NNlOrH 

NO 

00 


Pianos 

and 

other 

musical 

instru¬ 

ments 

O Ff Ol CO 

o 

On 


F urni- 
ture 
and 
cabinet 
work 

1,216 

106 

41 

23 

NO 

CO 

CO 



Lumber 

and 

planing- 

mill 

prod¬ 

ucts 

00 CO CO 04 

04 

CO 

NO 

Number of employes 
per plant 

1-19. 

20-49 . 

50-99 . 

100-499. 

500-999. 

1,000 and over. 

Total . ......... 













































































THE SIZE AND LOCATION OF WOOD-WORKING ESTABLISHMENTS 


25 


The 1917 map brings out the decline in number 
of employes resulting from the war. This slump, 
however, is less strikingly emphasized on the map 
than in the tables showing the number of em¬ 
ployes. In considering Table VI, it should be 
remembered that the year was an abnormal one 
because of the entry of the United States into 
the World War, and that all of the wood indus¬ 
tries of the city and its environs were more or less 
affected by this. It will be noted that the indus¬ 
tries included in the class designated "Miscellane¬ 
ous Wood Products” were affected least, because 
of the varying character of the products included 
and also because of the fact that many of the plants 
were small-scale establishments of the subsidiary 
service type. The lumber industry suffered de¬ 
cline probably because building not essential to 
the winning of the war was stopped and the 
workers went into other lines, many of them 
taking employment in cantonments or ship 
yards. The same sort of thing happened in the 
furniture industry. Few of the furniture manu¬ 
facturers were called upon to do war work, and 


many of their employes went into other indus¬ 
tries. This, however, seems to have been but a 
continuation of the gradual disintegration of the 
furniture industry in the city, so far as the manu¬ 
facture of regular lines was concerned, beginning 
four or five years earlier. The growth of the 
furniture industry since that time has consisted 
largely of the manufacture of specialized lines of 
furniture and cabinet work. 

The year 1917 was a notably difficult one for 
the piano manufacturers. The demand for pianos 
was reduced by the war and many plants em¬ 
ployed their men on war work. An example of 
this is found in the case of one of the larger com¬ 
panies in Manhattan, which operated one of its 
plants exclusively on war work, making aeroplane 
propellers and parts. It is also the testimony of 
men in the industry that in those plants not 
engaged on war work there was a great shifting 
of men from the piano industry to other indus¬ 
tries. 

A comparison between Table VI and Table II 
(page 21) reveals an increase in the relative im- 


Table VI.—Plants and Employes in the Wood Industries in New York and its Environs 

by Size of Plant and by Zones in 1917 


Plants 


Number of employes 
per plant 

Number 

Per cent 

Zone I 

Zone II 

Zone III 

Total 

Zone I 

Zone II 

Zone III 

Total 

1-19. 

1,061 

792 

157 

2,010 

83.8 

73.4 

84.9 

79.4 

20-49 . 

148 

150 

17 

315 

11.6 

13.9 

9.2 

12.5 

50-99. 

40 

84 

8 

132 

3.1 

7.8 

4.3 

5.2 

100-499. 

18 

45 

3 

66 

1.4 

4.2 

1.6 

2.6 

500-999. 


6 


6 


.5 


.2 

1,000 and over. 

1 

2 


3 

.1 

.2 


.1 

Total. 

1,268 

1,079 

185 

2,532 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

Employes 

1-19. 

5,889 

4,969 

945 

11,803 

34.5 

15.9 

34.1 

23.1 

20-49. 

4,394 

4,700 

485 

9,579 

25.8 

15.0 

17.5 

18.7 

50-99. 

2,691 

5,864 

488 

9,043 

15.8 

18.8 

17.6 

17.7 

100-499. 

2,805 

8,204 

855 

11,864 

16.4 

26.2 

30.8 

23.2 

500-999. 


4,066 


4,066 


13.0 


8.0 

1,000 and over. 

1,279 

3,477 


4,756 

7.5 

11.1 


9.3 

Total. 

17,058 

31,280 

2,773 

51,111 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 










































26 


THE WOOD INDUSTRIES IN NEW YORK AND ITS ENVIRONS 


portance of the small plant (less than 20 em¬ 
ployes) in the period 1900 to 1917. Although 
Zone I was still ahead of the other zones in total 
number of plants, it had fallen far behind Zone 
II in number of employes. In the furniture in¬ 
dustry only, Zone I retained undisputed priority, 
with 60 per cent of the plants and 51 per cent of 
the employes (see Table VII). In all the other 
wood industries Zone II surpassed in number of 
employes although not always in the number of 
plants. 

As might be expected, the small plants having 
less than 20 employes are in all instances the 
most numerous, but in no case in 1917 did this 
group of plants contain as many as 50 per cent of 
the employes in the industry (Table VIII). 

The Distribution in 1922 

The map for 1922 (Diagram II) substantially 
pictures the present-day situation. The con¬ 
centration in lower Manhattan, so strongly in 
evidence in 1900, was very much reduced by 
1922. The concentration of piano plants on the 


west side of Manhattan and in the Bronx is 
clearly indicated. Another new feature, con¬ 
trasted with 1900, is the grouping of furniture 
factories, planing mills, and other wood-working 
plants in the Bush Terminal region of Brooklyn. 
Developments of the past ten years in Long 
Island City are also plainly shown. In New 
Jersey may be noted a number of large plants, 
but without marked concentration in any of the 
wood-working industries. 

In considering the 1922 data, it is essential to 
keep in mind at all times that during this year 
business in general was recovering from a depres¬ 
sion. 

In 1922 Zone II was easily the most important 
in the lumber industry, containing almost 60 per 
cent of the establishments and 75 per cent of the 
total number of employes (Table X). While 
Zone I had slightly more plants than Zone III in 
the lumber industry, the number of employes in 
Zone III was larger. 

In the furniture industry (Table X), Zone I 
is shown to have a very slight lead in number of 


Table VII.— Plants and Employes in the Wood Industries in New York and its Environs 

by Type of Industry and Zone in 1917 


Plants 


Industry 

Number 

Per cent 

Zone I 

Zone II 

Zone III 

Total 

Zone I 

Zone II 

Zone III 

Total 

Lumber and planing-mill products. . . 

157 

238 

112 

507 

31.0 

46.9 

22.1 

100.0 

Furniture and cabinet work. 

610 

377 

29 

1,016 

60.0 

37.1 

2.9 

100.0 

Pianos and other musical instruments 

105 

69 

7 

181 

58.0 

38.1 

3.9 

100.0 

Cooperage. 

26 

66 

2 

94 

27.7 

70.2 

2.1 

100.0 

Pencils, pipes and cork. 

69 

92 

2 

163 

42.3 

56.5 

1.2 

100.0 

Miscellaneous wood products. 

301 

237 

33 

571 

52.7 

41.5 

5.8 

100.0 

Total. 

1,268 

1,079 

185 

2,532 

50.1 

42.6 

7.3 

100.0 


Employes 


Lumber and planing-mill products. . . 

2,545 

6,515 

1,643 

10,703 

23.8 

60.9 

15.3 

100.0 

Furniture and cabinet work. 

7,195 

6,153 

698 

14,046 

51.2 

43.8 

5.0 

100.0 

Pianos and other musical instruments 

2,698 

6,905 

138 

9,741 

27.7 

70.9 

1.4 

100.0 

Cooperage. 

138 

1,826 

17 

1,981 

7.0 

92.2 

.8 

100.0 

Pencils, pipes and cork. 

2,086 

6,569 

47 

8,702 

24.0 

75.5 

.5 

100.0 

Miscellaneous wood products. 

2,396 

3,312 

230 

5,938 

40.3 

55.8 

3.9 

100.0 

Total. 

17,058 

31,280 

2,773 

51,111 

33.4 

61.2 

5.4 

100.0 








































Table VIII.—Plants and Employes in the Wood Industries in New York and its Environs by Type of Industry and Size 


THE SIZE AND LOCATION OF WOOD-WORKING ESTABLISHMENTS 


27 



Total 

TtJ CS O M H 

ov c4 id cd 

t"* t-H 

o 

© 

o 


Miscel¬ 

laneous 

wood 

prod¬ 

ucts 

Ov oo Ov • • 

1^00 01 

00 

O’OOI 


Pencils, 

pipes, 

and 

cork 

fH to vq co 
cd^o»o * tA 

OrtH 

q 

d 

o 

Per cent 

Cooper¬ 

age 

O^^HH . 
^ONHH ‘ 

00 

O'OOI 


Pianos 

and 

other 

musical 

instru¬ 

ments 

LO rH Tf to to 

fO^OvOrn' 

'Oh h 

o 

d 

o 


Furni¬ 

ture 

and 

cabinet 

work 

oo co cs . • 

H CN tA 

00 T-H 

o 

d 

o 


Lumber 

and 

planing- 

mill 

prod¬ 

ucts 

oo Ov cs • 

CO VO VO cs 

T-H 

o 

d 

o 


Total 

O LO <N VO VO CO 

H t-H CO VO 

O CO t-h 

CN* 

CN 

CO 

to 

CN 



Miscel¬ 

laneous 

wood 

prod¬ 

ucts 

(NON'iO • • 

O LO H 

LO 

LO 


Pencils, 

pipes, 

and 

cork 

THCOt^OvrHCN 

HCSH 

163 

Ui 

0 ) 

XI 

6 

3 

Cooper¬ 

age 

OWONHH • 

94 

£ 

Pianos 

and 

other 

musical 

instru¬ 

ments 

LO O Ov CO t-h 

00 


F urni- 
ture 
and 
cabinet 
work 

HiOfON • ■ 

CO CN Th T-H • • 

00 ^ 

1,016 


Lumber 

and 

planing- 

mill 

prod¬ 

ucts 

MIO^LOH • 

NOOCOH 

CO 

507 

Number of employes 
per plant 

1-19. 

20-49. 

50-99. 

100-499. 

500-999. 

1,000 and over. 

Total. 



HtsNNOCC 

cd oo cd 06 o\ 


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00 00 iO CN Os O 


^ ^ I 

ooo^i 


00 ^ o CN VO O 


OOrHlONa 
CO T* r-A lO 
CN CN CN CN 


ONTt'O'OlO 
00^© OOON 

TH oC oT t-T t* 


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00 iO 00 vO 


Hrt CO 


OOlOH 
Tf CO TjH CO 
iOt>»OOON 





















































































28 


THE WOOD INDUSTRIES IN NEW YORK AND ITS ENVIRONS 


Table IX. — Plants and Employes in the Wood Industries in New York and its Environs 

By Size of Plant and Zone in 1922 


Plants 


Number of employes 
per plant 

Number 

Per cent 

Zone I 

Zone II 

Zone III 

Total 

Zone I 

Zone II 

Zone III 

Total 

1-19. 

1,216 

1,393 

182 

2,791 

89.7 

79.8 

84.6 

84.2 

20-49. 

93 

193 

24 

310 

6.8 

11.1 

11.2 

9.4 

50-99. 

30 

89 

2 

121 

2.2 

5.1 

.9 

3.6 

100-499. 

16 

65 

6 

87 

1.2 

3.7 

2.8 

2.6 

500-999. 

1 

3 


4 

.1 

.2 


.1 

1,000 and over. 


2 

1 

3 


.1 

.5 

.1 

Total. 

1,356 

1,745 

215 

3,316 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 


Employes 


1-19. 

6,007 

7,615 

887 

14,509 

40.4 

20.9 

20.7 

26.1 

20-49. 

2,881 

5,934 

620 

9,435 

19.4 

16.3 

14.4 

17.0 

50-99. 

2,126 

5,939 

126 

8,191 

14.3 

16.3 

2.9 

• 14.7 

100-499. 

3,021 

11,552 

1,020 

15,593 

20.3 

31.8 

23.7 

28.1 

500-999. 

837 

1,678 


2,515 

5.6 

4.6 


4.5 

1,000 and over. 


3,675 

1,645 

5,320 


10.1 

38.3 

9.6 

Total. 

14,872 

36,393 

4,298 

55,563 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 


Table X.— Plants and Employes in the Wood Industries in New York and its Environs by 

Type of Industry and Zone in 1922 

Plants 


Industry 

Number 

Per cent 

Zone I 

Zone II 

Zone III 

Total 

Zone I 

Zone II 

Zone III 

Total 

Lumber and planing-mill products. . 

148 

419 

136 

703 

21.1 

59.6 

19.3 

100.0 

F urniture and cabinet work. 

687 

662 

41 

1,390 

49.4 

47.6 

3.0 

100.0 

Pianos and other musical instruments 

81 

116 

9 

206 

39.3 

56.3 

4.4 

100.0 

Cooperage. 

20 

65 


85 

23.5 

76.5 


100.0 

Pencils, pipes, and cork. 

40 

112 

3 

155 

25.8 

72.3 

1.9 

100.0 

Miscellaneous wood products. 

380 

371 

26 

777 

48.9 

47.7 

3.4 

100.0 

Total. 

1,356 

1,745 

215 

3,316 

40.9 

52.6 

6.5 

100.0 


Employes 


Lumber and planing-mill products. . 

1,427 

9,441 

1,769 

12,637 

11.3 

74.7 

14.0 

100.0 

Furniture and cabinet work. 

6,290 

7,551 

253 

14,094 

44.6 

53.6 

1.8 

100.0 

Pianos and other musical instruments 

3,406 

8,383 

440 

12,229 

27.9 

68.5 

3.6 

100.0 

Cooperage. 

52 

1,206 


1,258 

4.1 

95.9 


100.0 

Pencils, pipes, and cork. 

1,244 

5,878 

1,671 

8,793 

14.2 

66.8 

19.0 

100.0 

Miscellaneous wood products. 

2,453 

3,934 

165 

6,552 

37.4 

60.1 

2.5 

100.0 

Total. 

14,872 

36,393 

4,298 

55,563 

26.8 

65.5 

7.7 

100.0 









































































































THE SIZE AND LOCATION OF WOOD-WORKING ESTABLISHMENTS 


29 


Q 

< 

pa 

>< CN 
0\ 

£ 5 

g i? 

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w 

fH 

o 

H 

Ph 

a 

w 

Q 

£ 

< 

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Total 

CN^'O'Ohh 

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© 

© 

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Miscel¬ 

laneous 

wood 

prod¬ 

ucts 

fOrlJMOH • 

CNiOHtH 

Os 

o 

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Pencils, 

pipes, 

and 

cork 

ONfOONfO 

O'- On O On t 

VO iH 

100.0 

Per cent 

Cooper¬ 

age 

81.2 

14.1 

3.5 

1.2 

o 

d 

o 


Pianos 

and 

other 

musical 

instru¬ 

ments 

0\ TfJ vo «o «o 

fOOOfOf^ 

>Oh»hh 

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Furni¬ 

ture 

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work 

Ov vO* CN t-J 

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100.0 


Lumber 

and 

planing- 

mill 

prod¬ 

ucts 

NNOOH • 

tH 

q 

d 

o 


Total 

2,791 

310 

121 

87 

4 

3 

3,316 


Miscel¬ 

laneous 

wood 

prod¬ 

ucts 

cn ON 00 t-h • 

rH 



Pencils, 

pipes, 

and 

cork 

© T-H T“l T"H 

. 155 

dumber 

Cooper¬ 

age 

On CN CO t-h • • 

NO T-H 

85 


Pianos 

and 

other 

musical 

instru¬ 

ments 

HOO^OO^rH 

THtOCNCN 

206 


Furni¬ 

ture 

and 

cabinet 

work 

’H'OOOIO • • 

^ ON CO t-h • • 

cn 

1,390 


Lumber 

and 

planing- 

mill 

prod¬ 

ucts 

vO t'- 00 H t-H • 
^OCSCN 
m T-H 

CO 

o 

Number of employes 
per plant 

1-19. 

20-49. 

50-99. 

100-499. 

500-999. 

1,000 and over. 

Total. 



HONHIOVO 
vd TjJ 00 Ov 

NHT-iM 

o 

o 

o 

Ov tq 00 co to • 
vo oo oo oo 

TH t-h 

o 

o 

o 

Ov rf © to to 
vO ^ (N »0 Os t-H 
t-H CO CO 

o 

d 

o 

vO Os iO O • • 

oo vd 

CSCNrHM 

o 

d 

o 

tJh CO CN VO 00 
vd On trj cd O 

t-h CN 

o 

d 

o 

44.2 

21.6 

18.1 

16.1 

q 

d 

o 

27.2 

25.8 

14.9 

27.7 

4.4 

o 

d 

o 

OMOHfOlOO 

O co Ov Ov t-h CN 
lO T-H lO to CO 

oT go" io cn” id' 

55,563 

3,071 

1,217 

575 

1,132 

557 

6,552 

co CO to to O 
O^OnNCON 

no oooo 
t-Tco cn” 

8,793 

NCOOOO • • 

^nOO^ • • 

CO co CN co 

00 

to 

CN 

tH^ioiO^O 

CN tji vO 00 VO to 

00 T-H 00 CN to to 
t-Tt-TitT CN* 

12,229 

CN O 00 ^ • • 

CO ^ tO NO - - 

CN O tO CN 
vd' co” CN CN 

14,094 

ioooOnn • 

CO to ON Ov to • 
^cN^oq-r^to 

CO~ co” t-h” CfT 

12,637 

1-19. 

20-49. 

50-99. 

100-499. 

500-999. 

1,000 and over. 

C 

4- 

E- 

i 

i 

i 

i 




























































































30 


THE WOOD INDUSTRIES IN NEW YORK AND ITS ENVIRONS 


Table XII.— Plants and Employes in the Wood Industries of New York and its Environs 

by Zones in 1900, 1912, 1917, and 1922 


Plants 


Zone a 

Number 

Per cent 

1900 

1912b 

1917 

1922 

1900 

1912b 

1917 

1922 

Zone I. 

972 

1,041 

1,268 

1,356 

61.9 

35.0 

50.1 

41.0 

Zone II. 

492 ' 

1,847 

1,079 

1,745 

31.3 

62.2 

42.6 

52.6 

Zone III. 

107 

82 

185 

215 

6.8 

2.8 

7.3 

6.4 

Total. 

1,571 

2,970 

2,532 

3,316 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 


Employes 


Zone I. 

21,701 

18,804 

2,494 

20,774 

40,731 

2,469 

17,058 

31,280 

2,773 

14,872 

36,393 

4,298 

50.5 

43.7 

5.8 

32.5 

63.7 

3.8 

33.4 

61.2 

5.4 

26.8 

65.5 

7.7 

Zone III. 

Total. 

42,999 

63,974 

51,111 

55,563 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 


a For a definition of zones, see Diagram I, page 10. 

b Due to the fact that the Industrial Directory for 1912 lumps the figures for plants with less than 20 employes in a 
fashion which makes it impossible to segregate figures accurately between Zone I and Zone II, it became necessary to 
resort to an arbitrary method for accomplishing this result. The distribution for 1900 was compared with that for 1917 and 
the change was assumed to have come about gradually and the data for small plants distributed accordingly. 


plants, but is below Zone II in number of em¬ 
ployes. Both plants and employes are few in 
number in Zone III and this is consistent with 
the fact that the furniture factories found in 
Zone III are for the most part small local shops. 

In the case of pianos and other musical instru¬ 
ments, cooperage, pencils, pipes and cork, Zone 
II leads in the number of establishments and 
even more impressively in the number of em¬ 
ployes. In the group of miscellaneous wood 
products, Zone I is slightly in the lead in number 
of plants but very much behind Zone II in num¬ 
ber of employes. 

The most striking facts brought out by Table 
XI are the predominance of small plants in the 
furniture industry and the fact that the majority 
of the workers in the piano industry are found in 
plants of more than 100 employes. These tables 
afford a more thorough analysis of the figures 
shown in the comparative summary tables which 
appear later. 

Comparisons, 1900, 1912, 1917, and 1922 

Table XII shows the number of plants and of 
employes in the entire area by zones for the years 


1900, 1912, 1917, and 1922. Comparisons be¬ 
tween the figures for 1900 and of 1922 are the 
most important. These afford a long-time view. 

The number of plants in Zone I, increased from 
972 in 1900 to 1,356 in 1922. This appears to in¬ 
dicate growth but there was a decrease in em¬ 
ploye's from 21,701 in 1900 to 14,872 in 1922. In 
other words, this table bears out the conclusions 
reached by a study of the maps and the other 
tables that the plants in Manhattan south of 
59th Street have declined in size since 1900. The 
situation is even more clearly indicated by com¬ 
paring the percentages of the number of plants 
and employes in the area found in Zone I in 1900 
and 1922. In 1900 Manhattan south of 59th 
Street contained 61.9 per cent of all the wood¬ 
working plants in the area under study and in 
these plants were engaged 50.5 per cent of the 
employes. By 1917, 50.1 per cent of the plants 
employed 33.4 per cent of the workers while in 
1922 Zone I contained but 41 per cent of the 
plants and 26.8 per cent of the employes. 

When the figures for 1900 and 1922 for Zone 
II are analyzed, a different result is obtained 
from that in the case of Zone I. The number of 


































THE SIZE AND LOCATION OF WOOD-WORKING ESTABLISHMENTS 


31 


Table XIII. — Plants and Employes in Wood Industries of New York and its Environs by 
Size of Plant in 1900, 1912, 1917, and 1922 

Plants 


Number of employes 
per plant 

Number 

Per cent 

1900 

1912 

1917 

1922 

1900 

1912 

1917 

1922 

1-19. 

1,105 

2,415 

2,010 

2,791 

70.3 

81.3 

79.4 

84.2 

20-49. 

292 

312 

315 

310 

18.6 

10.5 

12.5 

9.3 

50-99. 

89 

130 

132 

121 

5.7 

4.4 

5.2 

3.7 

100-499. 

72 

101 

66 

87 

4.6 

3.4 

2.6 

2.6 

500-999. 

11 

9 

6 

4 

.7 

.3 

.2 

.1 

1,000 and over. 

2 

3 

3 

3 

.1 

.1 

.1 

.1 

Total. 

1,571 

2,970 

2,532 

3,316 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 


Employes 


1-19. 

20-49. 

50-99. 

100-499. 

500-999. 

1,000 and over. 

8,037 

8,476 

5,727 

12,431 

5,993 

2,335 

17,436 

9,171 

8,068 

19,520 

5,767 

4,012 

11,803 

9,579 

9,043 

11,864 

4,066 

4,756 

14,509 

9,435 

8,191 

15,593 

2,515 

5,320 

18.7 

19.7 
13.3 
28.9 
14.0 

5.4 

27.3 

14.3 
12.6 
30.5 

9.0 

6.3 

23.1 

18.7 

17.7 

23.2 

8.0 

9.3 

26.1 

17.0 

14.7 

28.1 

4.5 

9.6 

Total. 

42,999 

63,974 

51,111 

55,563 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 


plants increased from 492 in 1900 to 1,745 in 1922 
but the increase in number of employes was rela¬ 
tively smaller, from 18,804 in 1900 to 36,393 in 
1922. Expressed in percentages of the total for 
the three zones, it is seen that in 1900 Zone II 
contained 31.3 per cent of the plants and 43.7 
per cent of the employes, while in 1922 it con¬ 
tained 52.6 per cent of the plants and 65.5 per 
cent of the employes. 

The figures for Zone III are less striking than 
those for either of the other zones. The region 
is not primarily industrial and the plants which 
are found are of two types. First, there is a com¬ 
paratively small number of scattered, large 
plants and, secondly, a much larger number of 
local sawmills and small factories with a few em¬ 
ployes each. Obviously, the total number of em¬ 
ployes in the whole zone is so small that the estab¬ 
lishment of even one fairly large new plant would 
have a marked effect upon the total number of 
employes. The figures show an increase of roughly 
100 per cent in the number of plants and a some¬ 
what smaller increase in number of employes. The 
relation of Zone III to the total area, as expressed 


in percentages, is not sharply different in 1922 
from what it was in 1900. It will be of interest to 
examine the bar graph at the bottom of Diagram 
I (page 10) in this connection. 

A comparison of the data shown in Table XIII 
and Table XIV will show the relative place held 
by the different industries in the various years. 

Distribution in Relation to Land Values 

Table XV is based upon a study of the location 
of the wood industries in Manhattan in 1922 1 
with reference to the value of the land upon 
which the establishments were located. In the 
case of the plants south of 59th Street, the land 
value class in which most plants in each group are 
found is that of $501-1,000 per front foot. The 
number of plants found upon the $201-500 land, 
with one exception, is smaller than the number 

1 A comparison between the land value map for 1922 and 
a similar map for 1914 shows comparatively little change 
in values in the parts of the city where the wood-working 
establishments are most abundant. Such a comparison 
shows practically no change in the Grand Street area where 
many of the smaller wood-working establishments are 
found. Somewhat higher land values are found in 1922 
than in 1914 in the piano manufacturing district of the 
middle west side of Manhattan. 











































32 


THE WOOD INDUSTRIES IN NEW YORK AND ITS ENVIRONS 


Table XIV.—Plants and Employes in the Wood Industries in New York and its Environs 

by Type of Industry in 1900, 1912, 1917, and 1922 

Plants 


Type of industry 

Number 

Per cent 

1900 

1912 

1917 

1922 

1900 

1912 

1917 

1922 

Lumber and planing-mill products. . 

400 

632 

507 

703 

25.5 

21.3 

20.0 

21.2 

Furniture and cabinet work. 

601 

1,386 

1,016 

1,390 

38.3 

46.7 

40.1 

41.9 

Pianos and other musical instruments 

160 

190 

181 

206 

10.2 

6.4 

7.2 

6.2 

Cooperage. 

52 

81 

94 

85 

3.3 

2.7 

3.7 

2.6 

Pencils, pipes, and cork. 

73 

189 

163 

155 

4.6 

6.3 

6.4 

4.7 

Miscellaneous wood products . 

285 

492 

571 

777 

18.1 

16.6 

22.6 

23.4 

Total. 

1,571 

2,970 

2,532 

3,316 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 


Employes 


Lumber and planing-mill products. . 

Furniture and cabinet work. 

Pianos and other musical instruments 

Cooperage. 

Pencils, pipes, and cork. 

Miscellaneous wood products. 

11,079 

11,721 

9,790 

2,310 

4,140 

3,959 

15,024 

17,222 

14,645 

2,599 

8,509 

5,975 

10,703 

14,046 

9,741 

1,981 

8,702 

5,938 

12,637 
14,094 
12,229 
1,258 ' 
8,793 
6,552 

25.8 
27.2 

22.8 
5.4 
9.6 
9.2 

23.5 

26.9 

22.9 

4.1 

13.3 

9.3 

20.9 

27.5 
19.1 

3.9 

17.0 

11.6 

22.7 
25.4 
22.0 

2.3 

15.8 

11.8 

Total. 

42,999 

63,974 

51,111 

55,563 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 

100.0 


Table XV.— Distribution of Plants in the Wood Industries in Manhattan By Type of 

Industry and Land Value in 1922 
Manhattan South of 59th Street 


Type of industry 

Number of plants on land of value 

Per cent of plants on land of value 

$101- 

200 

$201- 

500 

$501- 

1000 

$1001- 

5000 

Over 

$5000 

Total 

$101- 

200 

$201- 

500 

$501- 

1000 

$1001- 

5000 

Over 

$5000 

Total 

Lumber and planing-mill 













products. 

3 

28 

77 

34 

6 

148 

2.0 

18.9 

52.0 

23.0 

4.1 

100.0 

Furniture and cabinet work. 

13 

176 

274 

196 

28 

687 

1.9 

25.6 

39.9 

28.5 

4.1 

100.0 

Pianos and musical instru- 













ments. 


22 

37 

19 

3 

81 


27.1 

45.7 

23.5 

3.7 

100.0 

All other wood products.... 

3 

60 

224 

131 

22 

440 

.7 

13.6 

50.9 

29.8 

5.0 . 

100.0 

Total. 

19 

286 

612 

380 

59 

1,356 

1.4 

21.1 

45.1 

28.0 

4.4 

100.0 

Manhattan North of 59th Street 

Lumber and planing-mill 













products. 

1 

3 

6 

1 


11 

9.1 

27.3 

54.5 

9.1 


100.0 

Furniture and cabinet work. 


61 

67 

50 

1 

179 


34.1 

27.4 

37.9 

.6 

100.0 

Pianos and musical instru- 













ments. 


7 

7 



14 


50.0 

50.0 



100.0 

All other wood products.... 

3 

61 

46 

33 

1 

144 

2.1 

42.4 

31.9 

22.9 

.7 

100.0 

Total. 

4 

132 

126 

84 

2 

348 

1.2 

37.9 

36.2 

24.1 

.6 

100.0 
















































































































THE SIZE AND LOCATION OF WOOD-WORKING ESTABLISHMENTS 


33 


found uponthe$l,001-5,OOOland. Itisof interest 
to note that in each group of industries, the 
number of plants located upon the land with a 
value of over $5,000 is larger than the number on 
the $101-200 land. In the case of the “Furniture 
and Cabinet Work” and also of the “All Other 
Wood Products,” the plants found upon the most 
valuable land are small in size. Twenty-one of 
the 28 plants producing “Furniture and Cabinet 
Work,” and found upon the land with a value of 
over $5,000 per front foot, have less than 10 em¬ 
ployes. 1 Seventeen of the 22 plants producing 
“All Other Wood Products” upon land valued at 
over $5,000 per front foot have less than 10 em¬ 
ployes. In view of the lower value of the sites 
usually occupied by wood-working industries in 
towns and cities less congested than New York, 
it seems anomalous that so many plants can exist 
in Manhattan on land that is so valuable. 

The data relating to the plants north of 59th 
Street bring out similar conclusions. The num¬ 
ber of plants involved is very small. The most 
numerous group of plants is found upon land 
valued at from $201 to $500 per front foot. 
Only two plants are on land valued at over $5,000 
per front foot. 

Diagram III presents a curve for employes in 
the entire area and curves for the four principal 
groups of wood manufactures. The miscel¬ 
laneous group designated as “all other wood 
products” shows the least fluctuation. This 
group contains on the one hand a few large plants 
like the pencil factories, and at the other extreme, 
numerous small establishments which exist pri- 

1 Detailed tables which distribute the data according to 
the size of plants have been prepared and can be examined 
at the offices of the Regional Plan. 


marily to serve other industries. Examples of 
this type of establishment are the wood turning 
shops and those in which patterns for molding 
are made. The furniture curve shows a decided 
drop in 1917 with an almost imperceptible rise 
in 1922. The curves for lumber and musical in¬ 
struments both show a marked decline in 1917 
which, as explained elsewhere, was due to the 
war. 



Diagram III 

Employes in the wood industries in New York and its 
environs by types of industries in 1900, 1912, 1917, and 
1922 


























FACTORS DETERMINING THE LOCATION OF PLANTS IN 

THE WOOD INDUSTRIES 


To secure the information needed for interpret¬ 
ing the statistical material offered in the pre¬ 
ceding sections, recourse was had to trade publi¬ 
cations, national and local trade organizations, 1 
and to interviews with representative manufac¬ 
turers. The method used was that of sampling 
rather than of intensive investigation. 

Lumber Industry 

The lumber industry in the city supplies ma¬ 
terials for building and for other wood-working 
industries. In many, probably most instances, 
planing mills are run in conjunction with the 
lumber yards in order to shape materials to the 
needs of each consumer. Some of the larger fur¬ 
niture and piano factories buy their material di¬ 
rectly from the mills at the source of supply, but 
the establishments of less importance buy in 
small quantities from local yards as the lumber 
is needed. Much of the lumber used in building 
is sold by agents and jobbers who represent mills 
located outside the city. The jobbers who take 
the contracts for the important office buildings 
and apartment houses get their material from 
the South and the West, some of it coming from 
the Pacific coast. Operations of this type occa¬ 
sion little actual manufacturing in the city but 
call for comparatively large storage space. There 
are few really large mills in New York or else¬ 
where in the East. Indeed, it is probable that an 
increasing proportion of the milling is done out¬ 
side of the city at the source of supply. Planing 
mills are declining in importance throughout the 
East. 

The few planing mills of large size that remain 
in Manhattan are exceptions. This is because it 
is impossible to get space without paying high 
rentals or having a great deal of money tied up 

1 Among the trade organizations which cooperated were: 
The Merchants Association of New York, The American 
Federation of Labor, The New York Lumber Trade Asso¬ 
ciation, the Eastern Millwork Bureau, The Mahogany 
Association, The New York Piano Manufacturers Asso¬ 
ciation, The Piano, Organ and Musical Instrument Work¬ 
ers International Union of America, The Conference Board 
of the Decorative Trades, and the Cane and Umbrella 
Handle Manufacturers’ Association. 


in real estate. A few plants occupy valuable 
sites because the owners have held them for a 
long time and believe they can eventually make 
a large profit on their real estate investment. 

The important factors determining the location 
of the lumber yards and planing mills within the 
city are space and transportation facilities. If 
yards for storing and curing lumber are main¬ 
tained, the ground space required is large in com¬ 
parison with that used by most of the other in¬ 
dustries employing an equal number of workers. 
Lumber and planing-mill establishments cannot 
use tall buildings but must stay near the ground. 
In this respect they differ from the lighter wood 
industries, such as furniture manufacturing and 
wood-turning. Facilities for rail and water trans¬ 
portation are both important. For the large 
mills water frontage is almost essential. 

New York’s important lumber milling estab¬ 
lishments are to be found in Brooklyn and 
Queens, particularly the former. The largest 
plants are in the Greenpoint section of Brooklyn 
along Newtown Creek. This section has the ad¬ 
vantage of adequate space, access to water trans¬ 
portation, and a good labor market. However, 
even this district is approaching the saturation 
point. Two plants which did not have water¬ 
front sites have recently found it necessary to 
move to the suburbs to secure room for develop¬ 
ment. At the present time the mill owners are 
experiencing some difficulty in securing labor. 
This is explained by the fact that there is reluc¬ 
tance on the part of the young workers to go into 
woodwork, except in the building trades. Fear 
of difficulty in securing labor acts as a check on 
the tendency to move to the suburbs or to the 
smaller towns. 

At the other extreme from the large concerns 
which measure their ground space by acres or by 
blocks, are the neighborhood dealers who have 
small yards serving their immediate vicinity. 
Most of these do a small amount of sawing and 
are located in obsolescent business buildings or in 
converted residences. 


34 


FACTORS DETERMINING LOCATION OF PLANTS IN WOOD INDUSTRIES 35 


A deterrent factor influencing the location of 
the smaller establishments is the objection that, 
while not excluded by the zoning law from 
business districts, they have a blighting effect on 
the streets where they are located. This is be¬ 
cause the yards take up a great deal of space and 
the frontage along the street cannot be advan¬ 
tageously used for other business purposes. Lum¬ 
ber yards also increase the fire hazards of a 
neighborhood. 

Some of the large mills in the city do more than 
a purely local business in particular lines. The 
largest mill in the city manufactures portable 
houses and sells them outside the radius which 
it serves in other lines. This establishment started 
in 1872 in Williamsburg on the East River and 
moved a few years later to its present location 
on Newtown Creek in Brooklyn. Plant and 
yards occupy a space of 32 acres with one- 
half mile of docks. From 600 to 700 skilled and 
unskilled workers are employed and a great 
variety of planing-mill products are produced. 
Another plant which occupies a space of 30 acres 
is located on Grand Street in Brooklyn. It was 
established in 1850 on Cross Street near East 
River and in 1904 was moved to its present loca¬ 
tion to secure room for expansion and to escape 
the high rent demanded in its original location. 
Another establishment started 80 years ago on 
the East River and 40 years later moved to its 
present location on Newtown Creek. 

Box factories are operated in connection with 
many of the planing mills. This makes a very 
satisfactory combination because some of the box 
lumber can frequently be taken out and sold in 
a higher grade. The existence of several large 
box factories in and around New York is ex¬ 
plained by the large local demand for boxes, an 
adequate supply of labor, and the further fact 
that raw materials can be brought in by water, 
while finished boxes, which are very bulky, ordi¬ 
narily come by rail and have to bear high freight 
charges from the South and the West. 

New York is one of the most important ports 
of entry for cabinet woods which are brought 
into the country from abroad. Mahogany and 
Spanish cedar are the most important of these. 
The mahogany imported into the United States 
comes principally from British Honduras, Nica¬ 


ragua, Mexico and Africa. It is used in the manu¬ 
facture of furniture, musical instruments, planing- 
mill products, in car construction, for coffins, in 
ship building and for many minor purposes. The 
imported cabinet woods come in the form of 
unsawn logs because these can be brought in free 
of duty and are not damaged by transportation. 
Frequently the imported logs are sawed in mills 
which also saw domestic woods but certain mills 
specialize on such woods as mahogany and Span¬ 
ish cedar. If conducted on a large scale the busi¬ 
ness calls for large space, large capital and skilled 
labor. The ways in which the business may be con¬ 
ducted are explained in the following paragraph: 

“Manufacturers import the logs and convert 
them into lumber and veneers. In these forms 
they come in competition with imported lumber 
and veneers manufactured from the log in foreign 
mills. The domestic industry takes several forms. 
In some cases (1) a manufacturer, say of cigar 
boxes or furniture, imports the logs, saws them 
into boards, and manufactures the boxes; in 
other cases (2) a sawmill imports the logs, saws 
them into lumber, and sells the lumber to the 
manufacturer; and in still other cases, (3) the 
sawmill does a custom business for the manu¬ 
facturer, the manufacturer importing the logs 
and having them sawed to order.” 1 

There are two large mills and some half dozen 
smaller mills which specialize in the sawing of 
mahogany in and near New York. The largest 
of these mills is now located at Carteret, New 
Jersey, and the next largest in Long Island City. 
The mill at Carteret has a space of eighty acres 
and the mill in Long Island City about twenty- 
five acres. The other plants, all smaller than the 
two just described, are nearly all on the lower 
east side of Manhattan. One is located at 7th 
Street and East River, two at 8th Street and 
East River, one on East 10th Street, one at 135th 
Street and East River, and another in Long 
Island City. 

The location requirements of the mahogany 
mills call for waterfront location and a timber 
basin or pond into which the logs can be thrown 
before they are drawn up into the mill. Outside 
of the timber basin there must be a depth 

1 United States Tariff Commission, Tariff Information 
Surveys, D-l, page 12. 


36 


THE WOOD INDUSTRIES IN NEW YORK AND ITS ENVIRONS 


of at least 25 feet of water to enable the steamers 
to deliver the logs. It is said that only one 
important mahogany mill in the country lacks 
a waterfront location. The company which has 
just located at Carteret has had an interesting 
history in the matter of location. Founded in 
1828, its mill was originally located on the west 
side of Manhattan about 35th Street. Some 
twenty-five years ago the company found that 
this location was no longer satisfactory and 
moved to Staten Island where it had 2,000 
feet of waterfront on the ship channel and a 
depth of 42 feet of water. This was considered an 
ideal location. However, in 1918, the Staten 
Island site was taken for municipal use and, as 
the mahogany mill was forced to move, the loca¬ 
tion at Carteret was chosen. 

Since the large veneer mills must have yards 
in which to store and cure lumber, as well as 
access to the water, it seems probable that all the 
large mills will eventually be pushed to the out¬ 
skirts of the city. In the opinion of some of the 
best informed men in the industry, even Long 
Island City will become too crowded. In that 
case the New Jersey meadows would seem to 
offer the most feasible combination of abundant 
space and water transportation. 

Furniture and Cabinet Work 

Furniture .—The place of New York in the 
furniture industry of the country, the number 
and location of the establishments, and the 
number of workers engaged have already been 
discussed in other parts of this report. 1 Besides a 
certain amount of very cheap furniture which is 
assembled in New York, there are two well- 
defined grades of furniture manufactured here. 
One is a good grade of commercial furniture, 
the other is a very high grade of special furniture, 
sometimes referred to in the trade as Imperial 
Furniture. It is this special furniture which has 
come to be regarded as the characteristic New 
York product and which makes the value of the 
furniture output of the city so large. 

The commercial furniture manufactured in 
New York comes in competition with the furni¬ 
ture produced on a quantity basis in such centers 
as Grand Rapids, Michigan, Jamestown, New 

1 See page 16. 


York, and High Point, North Carolina. This 
grade of furniture is sold in New York in im¬ 
mense quantities, but because of high rentals, 
high transportation charges, and high labor 
costs, it* is extremely difficult to meet the com¬ 
petition of manufacturers located elsewhere. 
Some of the manufacturers have gone out of 
business entirely, while others have ceased 
manufacturing and have become the selling 
agents for manufacturers located in other parts 
of the country. For example, a prominent 
company, which was established 75 years ago 
and has long been located in Broome Street, no 
longer manufactures furniture or refrigerators, 
but conducts a sales agency for twelve other 
manufacturers. During the period when this 
concern was located on Broome Street and 
manufactured furniture, it was in the very 
center of the furniture district; but now as a 
sales agency, it has had to move to the furniture 
selling district on West 34th St. 

Although New York does not rank high in the 
manufacture of the cheapest grades of furniture, 
there are many small factories where cheap furni¬ 
ture is assembled and where low-grade uphol¬ 
stered furniture is made and repaired. Such shops 
are found in greatest number on the lower East 
Side, but furniture repair shops are found 
throughout the city. Size of shop and number 
of employes is no indication of the type of fur¬ 
niture produced. Some of the cheapest and 
some of the finest furniture produced in the city 
is built in the small shops. The existence of 
small shops producing very high-grade furniture 
is one of the characteristic features of the in¬ 
dustry in New York. 

Furniture of the highest grade is manufactured 
for the furnishing of fine houses and apartments 
and for use in the best hotels the country over. 
It is estimated that about half of such furniture 
is made to special order. In many instances the 
furniture is built to occupy a particular place in 
a particular room. Much furniture of this type 
is manufactured upon the order of interior deco¬ 
rators. This naturally brings about very close 
relations between the furniture manufacturers 
and the other decorative Industries. 1 

1 Recognition of this common interest has led to the 
organization in the city of the Conference Board of the 


FACTORS DETERMINING LOCATION OF PLANTS IN WOOD INDUSTRIES 


37 


The very high-grade furniture is of two dif¬ 
ferent types. One is the very artistically carved 
and upholstered living room furniture; the other 
is the class known as “case goods” and includes 
bedroom and dining room furniture. The special 
character of the New York furniture industry is 
illustrated by the statement of the head of what 
is probably the largest furniture factory in Man¬ 
hattan, employing from 150 to 200 workers, that 
a New York manufacturer would rarely cut more 
than four sets or pieces of furniture alike, while a 
factory outside of New York, which manufac¬ 
tures on a quantity basis cuts as many as 250 
pieces of the same kind, at one time. In the very 
highest class of upholstered furniture the wood 
frame is a very small item in the cost of the 
finished article. In a davenport retailing at $500, 
one manufacturer estimated that it would cost 
not more than $10 to produce the frame. Some 
of the upholsterers make their own frames, but 
many of them depend upon the frame manufac¬ 
turers and do only the upholstering. These frame 
manufacturers are found in the outskirts of the 
city or entirely outside. 

The map giving the location of the wood in¬ 
dustries in 1922 1 shows a marked change in the 
location of the furniture factories employing as 
many as 20 employes, compared with the map 
for 1900 or even 1912. In 1900 the concentra¬ 
tion in the area around Broome Street was 
marked, while the industry was of little impor¬ 
tance in the Borough of Queens. 

The shift from the Broome and Grand Street 
district is due primarily to the need for more 
space and more satisfactory manufacturing fa¬ 
cilities in general. The old four- and five-story 
buildings found in the manufacturing district of 
the lower part of Manhattan became obsolete, and 
this, accompanied by high rentals and insurance 
charges, led the furniture manufacturers to seek 
other quarters. As these were hard to find, 
some of the manufacturers went to Brooklyn or 

Decorative Trades, composed of representatives of the 
Society of Interior Decorators, Association of Master 
Painters and Decorators, Cabinet Makers Employers 
Association, the Association of Manufacturers of Decora¬ 
tive Furniture, the Association of Trade Upholsterers, and 
the Wood-carvers Employers Association. One of the 
principal functions of this organization has been to deal 
with labor problems. 

1 See Diagram II, opposite page 20. 


to Queens. Others were able to find new quarters 
in Manhattan. One of the largest factories left 
in Manhattan, now located at 53d Street and 
East River, was able to secure this location be¬ 
cause a firm in another line of business went 
bankrupt and the building was available at the 
time that the furniture manufacturer was seek¬ 
ing a location. The manufacturer considers his 
location there as accidental, but the site has 
proved to be very satisfactory because it is near 
enough to the offices of the interior decorators 
to make unnecessary the maintenance of a sep¬ 
arate showroom. This manufacturer makes no 
use of water transportation and his location on 
the bank of the East River is without significance 
to him. Another of the largest factories in Man¬ 
hattan is found on East River on the lower East 
Side at Gouverneur Slip. This location is ex¬ 
plained by the fact that the company has been 
there nearly 50 years, owns its own land, and 
due to the character of the site in its relation to 
the river has been able to remain there. This 
company maintains a sales room on West 
40th Street. Another manufacturer, who builds 
special furniture of the very highest quality, is 
located on East 72d Street near the East River. 
Much of the work done in this shop is skilled 
hand work and the factory occupies but one 
floor. The rest of the building is occupied by 
other wood workers, and in order to be able to 
retain his location, this furniture manufacturer is 
considering the purchase of the building. Visits 
to New York furniture factories frequently em¬ 
phasize the fact that suitable manufacturing 
space is hard to obtain in New York, and that 
the furniture factories now in Manhattan have 
had little choice in the matter of location. It 
is also easy to understand why the buildings 
constructed especially for light manufacturing 
are very attractive to furniture manufacturers. 
Unlike planing and sawing, the manufacture of 
furniture, as it is carried on in New York, is a 
light industry, and buildings of five or more 
stories can be utilized. In many instances two 
or more furniture factories are found in the same 
building. This works to the advantage of all 
concerned. It is in the matter of space and 
power facilities that Long Island City makes its 
greatest appeal to the furniture manufacturers. 


38 


THE WOOD INDUSTRIES IN NEW YORK AND ITS ENVIRONS 


The presence or absence of a supply of skilled 
labor is another important factor in determining 
the location. The Germans were formerly the 
dominant nationality in the furniture industry. 
At the present time there are also many Italians. 
During the summer of 1922 there was a shortage 
of labor in the furniture industry due to the high 
wages paid in the building trades. The furniture 
manufacturers also say that fewer skilled cabinet 
workers are coming from Europe than formerly 
and that those who do come are not up to the 
same standard of skill as those who came a few 
years ago. 

Transportation is of less importance in the 
furniture industry of New York than it is in 
most of the other wood industries. There are 
two reasons for this: (1) the amount of lumber 
used in fine furniture is relatively less than the 
amount used in many other products, and (2) 
most of the furniture produced in the city is 
marketed locally. There was general agreement 
on this among the furniture manufacturers 
interviewed. The manufacturer located on 
Gouverneur Slip, who employs a maximum 
of 200 workers, finds that one truck is suffi¬ 
cient to handle both his incoming and outgoing 
freight. 

Cabinet Work .—Under cabinet work have been 
included show cases, store fixtures, and refrig¬ 
erators. The establishments which manu¬ 
facture show cases and store fixtures in New 
York are of medium size and are scattered in 
various parts of the city. The large establish¬ 
ments in this industry, as in the furniture in¬ 
dustry, are found in the Middle West and the 
South where the advantages arising from a 
nearness to supplies of lumber, coal and cheaper 
labor, induce large-scale production. The facto¬ 
ries in New York have the advantages of good 
rail transportation and the fairly steady demand 
for their goods which comes from location in a 
large city. Since skilled labor is used almost 
exclusively, there is the additional advantage of 
being able to draw upon the pool of skilled wood 
workers found in New York. The importance 
attached to a supply of labor is illustrated by 
the history of one of the leading establishments 
in the city. This company was organized about 
forty years ago and had its factory in the Cats¬ 


kills. It was forced to move, however, in a few 
years in order to obtain skilled labor and the 
plant was moved to New York and located on 
Bank Street. Shortly after 1900, the factory 
burned and the company was unable to renew 
its lease and moved to its present location on 
East 137th Street. The company is now building 
a new factory across the Harlem River in the 
Bronx, where it will have more adequate man¬ 
ufacturing facilities. Another factory which was 
established in Williamsburg fifty-six years ago 
and is now located on Meserole Avenue, Brook¬ 
lyn, has moved twice in its history, in each case 
to secure larger space. This factory markets its 
products locally and maintains a sales office in 
Manhattan on Canal Street. 

Space, skilled labor, rail transportation, and a 
local market are the factors that bulk large in 
determining the location of the store-fixtures 
plants. Space is an essential factor in air-drying 
the lumber after it arrives at the factory. This 
process necessitates the stacking of the lumber 
in such a way that the air can circulate freely 
between the pieces. Then before the raw 
material is cut to dimensions it has to go through 
a kiln-drying process in order to get the surplus 
water out of the wood. Factory and storage 
facilities for finished products require additional 
space and the total space requirements in propor¬ 
tion to the number of employes are far higher 
than they are in many other industries. Lumber 
from the South and West is received by rail but 
few woodworking plants have their own sidings. 
Plants of a similar character located in smaller 
cities frequently have their own railroad sidings. 
There is no perceptible tendency for plants of 
this type to change their location within the 
city or to concentrate in any particular location. 
They exist primarily to serve the local market 
and are not likely to change radically in number 
or in their space demands in the near future. 

The refrigerator manufacturing industry of the 
country has its centers in Michigan and the ad¬ 
joining states of the Great.Lakes region. Estab¬ 
lishments located in these states supply the 
Middle West and much of the rest of the country. 
Owing to high freight rates, the eastern manu¬ 
facturers have an advantage in the eastern 
markets in the sale of medium-priced refrigera- 


FACTORS DETERMINING LOCATION OF PLANTS IN WOOD INDUSTRIES 39 


tors. The eastern manufacturers are also able 
to compete on the Pacific Coast, because of 
competitive water and rail rates. There is also 
some trade with Mexico and the South'American 
countries and this would seem to offer a promis¬ 
ing field for future development. In general, 
however, New York, like the rest of the East, is 
handicapped in competition with middle-west¬ 
ern manufacturers by distance from the raw 
materials; and it seems unlikely, in view of 
failures among firms that have started in compe¬ 
tition with the existing factories, that a large 
refrigerator industry will develop in New York. 

That there is no marked concentration of 
refrigerator manufacturing in New York is 
shown by the fact that, of the two leading fac¬ 
tories in the city, one is located at 119 Lorimer 
Street, Brooklyn, and the other at 55 East 150th 
Street, Manhattan. There are a few other re¬ 
frigerator plants scattered over the city. The 
factory located on Lorimer Street in Brooklyn 
was established on its present site forty years 
ago and enjoys what seems to be, for its purpose, 
an ideal location. It has its own lumber yard, 
and factory and yard together cover about two 
acres. Lumber is purchased locally through 
lumber agents in the city. From 50 to 75 per cent 
of the output of the factory is sold in Manhattan 
and Brooklyn. The demand for refrigerators is 
constant from year to year and production can 
be gauged accordingly. Semi-skilled labor is em¬ 
ployed and many different nationalities are rep¬ 
resented in the working force which ranges from 
130 to 150 in number. 

In general, it may be said that the factors 
which determine the location of refrigerator 
manufacturing establishments are the same as 
those which determine the location of establish¬ 
ments producing medium-priced furniture on a 
quantity basis. 

The Piano Industry 

Although' pianos are not classified by the cen¬ 
sus among the remanufactures of lumber, the 
piano factories are large users of wood and the 
piano industry is similar to the other wood in¬ 
dustries in that both raw materials and finished 
products are bulky and space consuming. Pianos, 
however, are relatively high in value. 


New York has long been and still is an im¬ 
portant piano-manufacturing center and the 
prestige of New York pianos was early estab¬ 
lished. But this prestige has declined in relative 
importance in recent years as other cities have 
become piano manufacturing centers. 

New York, however, possesses manufacturing 
advantages. One of the greatest of these is the 
large proportion of the country’s piano-buying 
public living within the area served by the city. 
The other principal advantages—an adequate 
labor supply and good transportation facilities 
—are discussed in connection with the descriptions 
of particular sections of the city. The foreign 
trade in pianos, though never large in volume, 
affords an additional advantage. Before the World 
War certain New York companies, which manu¬ 
factured high-grade commercial pianos, exported 
a considerable portion of their output to Australia. 
Since the war, owing to the disturbed rate of ex¬ 
change, few pianos have been exported. In general, 
it may be said that, owing to their bulk and the 
fact that they do not stand rough handling nor the 
dampness incident to ocean shipping, pianos are 
not an important factor in our foreign trade. 

In the early days of the piano industry, most 
of the factories were located on the East Side 
of Manhattan below 14th Street. This was then 
the manufacturing district of the city. It was 
also the area which contained the homes of the 
German workers who were predominant in the 
piano industry. Piano factories, which require 
ample space and permanent manufacturing 
quarters, cannot move as readily as many other 
industries which deal with lighter products. 
The process of manufacture is comparatively 
slow and space is required for the storage of 
materials and of instruments in process of 
manufacture. Because of high rents and the 
difficulty of securing adequate quarters in the 
lower East Side, the piano factories eventually 
left that section. They moved farther north on 
Manhattan, to the Bronx and to .Queens. As 
is shown by the maps in Diagram II , 1 there are 
now three principal groups of factories in the city. 

There are scattered piano factories in Man¬ 
hattan, but most are concentrated west of Eighth 
Avenue, a few blocks north and south of 50th 

1 Opposite page 20. 


40 


THE WOOD INDUSTRIES IN NEW YORK AND ITS ENVIRONS 


Street. This is distinctly a manufacturing 
district with large, regular blocks and an abun¬ 
dant supply of labor living in the tenements of 
the neighborhood. Many of the earlier settlers 
in this section of the city were German and Irish, 
and the piano factories began to appear in the 
district before 1880. 1 

The manufacturers in this district have a 
distinct advantage in the labor supply upon 
which they draw, and the workers, if dissatisfied 
in one factory, can easily change to another in 
the same vicinity. There is also an advantage 
in marketing that comes from the concentration 
of the industry. The district falls within the 
free lighterage area and this makes it possible to 
get prompt delivery of lumber. Quick transpor¬ 
tation reduces the need for elaborate storage 
facilities. This explains why a profit can be made 
upon high-priced land. So long as the advan¬ 
tages in labor and transportation outweigh the 
disadvantage of high site values, concentration 
in this area is likely to persist. 

The other center of marked concentration is 
in the lower Bronx. In a considerable district, 
the piano factories are the dominant manufac¬ 
turing establishments. The movement of the 
factories into the Bronx came before 1900 and 
there were two factories located there before the 
movement of the others occurred. Some of the 
factories moved from Manhattan, while others 
were started in the Bronx. It was a district 
where ambitious foremen starting out for them¬ 
selves could acquire land and begin operations. 
It is generally agreed that the greatest attraction 
for the piano factories which early moved into 
the Bronx was the cheapness of the land as com¬ 
pared with Manhattan. In 1922, 32 of the 40 
establishments producing pianos and other musi¬ 
cal instruments in the Bronx were located upon 
land having a value per front foot of less than 
two hundred dollars. In Manhattan, in the 
same year, no piano plants were found on land 
valued at less than two hundred dollars per 
front foot. 2 

The railroad facilities in the Bronx are rela¬ 
tively good because of the terminals located along 

1 A history of this district is given in The Middle West 
Side by Otho G. Cartwright, published by the Russell Sage 
Foundation in The West Side Studies. 

2 See land value table, page 32. 


the Harlem River, and as the number of piano 
factories has increased there have developed all 
the advantages that accompany concentration. 
In the early period of the industry in the Bronx, 
difficulty was experienced in securing labor, but 
as the number of factories increased, many of 
the workers moved into the district. At the 
present time a large proportion of those em¬ 
ployed in the factories live in the Bronx. An 
additional labor advantage is in the quick and 
direct connection by subway and elevated with 
Manhattan which makes it possible for the 
Bronx piano manufacturers to draw upon the 
Italian colonies of the East Side of Manhattan. 
There is comparatively little concentration of 
ownership control among the Bronx factories 
and most of the companies own the land upon 
which their factories are located. Occasionally 
a small establishment is found in the same build¬ 
ing with a larger one which owns the building. 
Few of the factories are large enough to require 
many buildings or large storage places or yards, 
but they are in no sense crowded together as in 
the manufacturing districts of Manhattan. 

Two of the largest piano factories are located 
in Queens. One of these produces a large output 
of medium-priced pianos while the other restricts 
the volume of its output and specializes in high- 
grade instruments. The latter concern was estab¬ 
lished in 1853 and was long located on Park 
Avenue, between 52d and 53d Streets. This site 
became too expensive to be used for manufac¬ 
turing purposes and the present site in Queens 
was acquired. The last unit of the piano factory 
was moved to the new location twelve years ago. 
This site has the advantages of abundant space and 
good rail and water transportation facilities. The 
company manufactures practically all of its own 
piano parts, a practice uncommon among New 
York piano factories. As a result, it uses more 
space for lumber storage, for its foundry, and for 
fabrication than do the other factories. Alto¬ 
gether the plant occupies about twelve acres but 
could get along with less space if necessary. 

The chief disadvantage in Queens is the diffi¬ 
culty of attracting skilled labor. This difficulty 
was felt particularly when the piano factories 
first settled there. The workers and their 
families do not want to leave behind them the 


FACTORS DETERMINING LOCATION OF PLANTS IN WOOD INDUSTRIES 


41 


shopping and amusement advantages of Man¬ 
hattan and the foreign colonies where many of 
them find their chief social life. In addition, 
living accommodations, although often better in 
quality in Long Island City and similar districts, 
are frequently higher in price than those which 
can be secured in the congested tenement dis¬ 
tricts of Manhattan. The establishment de¬ 
scribed above regularly employs 1,000 workers 
and at the present time it is estimated that 
50 per cent of the workers live at a distance 
from the factory. The annual output which 
is confined to high grade pianos is about 
6,000 pianos. A sales office occupying the 
whole of a five-story building is maintained 
in Manhattan and approximately 95 per cent of 
the output of the factory is sold in the domestic 
trade outside of New York City. Another fac¬ 
tory is operated in Germany for the European 
trade. 

The piano industry at the present time pre¬ 
sents an interesting transition from the small 
shop dominated by the spirit of the craftsman 
to larger factories in which are found the ideals 
and methods of large scale operation and of 
quantity production which have come to dom¬ 
inate so many other lines of manufacturing. 
The early generation of piano manufacturers com¬ 
bined skilled artisanship with musical apprecia¬ 
tion. They had come up through the industry and 
united the craftsman’s appreciation of good 
cabinet work with the musician’s appreciation of 
an instrument of fine tone. Their small factories 
are giving way to large plants using modern 
manufacturing methods and operated for profit 
by men who are primarily trained business ad¬ 
ministrators rather than artisans or musicians. 
The transition is not yet complete. There are 
still many small factories, but the change in the 
industry is advancing noticeably. One feature 
of the change in manufacturing methods has 
been a standardization of processes and of parts. 
The standardization of parts has gone so far that 
many New York manufacturers buy most of 
their parts ready for assembling. In this way 
they reduce their space requirements and become 
little more than marketing agents. They carry 
on only the last stages of fabrication and stamp 
the product with their name. 


A second change in manufacturing methods 
has been the division of tasks in the separate 
branches of what were formerly single and dis¬ 
tinct trades. An example in point is the change 
that has come about in the methods of finishing 
piano cases. Formerly a single individual sand¬ 
papered a case, varnished it, and polished it; 
now, the finishing has been divided into three 
distinct operations each performed by a special¬ 
ist. This specialization has made it easier for 
the manufacturers to train skilled workers. The 
net result has been increased production but 
the workers are no longer craftsmen with a com¬ 
plete mastery of a whole trade. On the other 
hand, standardized methods have materially 
lessened the seasonal variation in production 
and employment is more regular than formerly. 
Obviously, too, the introduction of machinery 
and of standardized methods has not always 
been a disadvantage to the workers. This was 
shown in the case of the introduction of machines 
to do the sandpapering which had before been a 
hand operation. When the machines were in¬ 
troduced, many of the workers were highly in¬ 
dignant and in some instances went on strike. 
The final outcome, however, was that the number 
of men engaged in finishing was not reduced and 
the sheer drudgery of the operation was greatly 
lessened by the machine. In general it may be 
said that it has been the standardization of parts, 
of methods, and of processes rather than the 
introduction of machinery which has wrought 
the change in the industry. 

Prior to 1900 the skilled workers in the piano 
industry in New York were nearly all Germans, 
but the heavy Italian immigration of the first 
decade of the twentieth century, has effected a 
gradual substitution. The Italians were at first 
largely unskilled, but they soon made a place for 
themselves in the industry. They were aggres¬ 
sive and helped each other, and when once a few 
Italians had become established in a factory, it 
was noticed that they brought in their friends 
and relatives and the older German workers lost 
their place of numerical superiority. At present 
fully 60 per cent of the piano workers are 
Italian, although German and American-born 
workers predominate in some individual factories. 
Unlike the skilled workers in the furniture in- 


42 


THE WOOD INDUSTRIES IN NEW YORK AND ITS ENVIRONS 


dustry, most of the foreign-born piano workers 
have learned their trade since coming to America. 

The centers of the piano industry are New 
York, Chicago, Boston and Baltimore. In all of 
these there is a measure of labor organization, 
but in none is the union a dominating factor. 
In New York it is estimated by the union officials 
that the membership does not include more than 
20 per cent of the workers. In consequence, 
the union is not able to engage in collective 
bargaining but devotes its attention to securing 
better hours and better working conditions in 
the factories. Before 1900 the usual working 
day was ten hours, then it was changed to nine 
hours, and following the World War the eight- 
hour day became common. It is estimated by 
the Industrial Bureau of the New York Piano 
Manufacturers’ Association that the normal 
maximum pay roll of the piano factories in the 
city is 8,000 and that during the present sum¬ 
mer the number of men on the pay roll has 
been about 5,600. One reason for the shortage 
of workers this summer (1923) is that many of 
the men have been tempted by high wages into 
the building trades. 

The wood work which requires the most skill 
in the manufacture of pianos is the making and 
adjusting of sounding boards. Next in order is 
the making of piano cases. The installation of 
the actions and the mechanical features requires 
less training than does the wood work. In the 
building of player and of grand pianos, more 
mechanical skill is required than in the construc¬ 
tion of upright pianos. The reduction in the 
number of upright pianos manufactured has 
been very marked. One prominent company 
which formerly made 4,000 upright pianos per 
year now produces 200 and devotes the rest of 
its capacity to the production of player and 
grand pianos. 

New York piano manufacturers, with two or 
three exceptions, do not manufacture piano 
actions, but buy them from outside manufac¬ 
turers. Many are made in the metal manufac¬ 
turing plants of Connecticut. 

The making of piano actions requires much 
less skill than the making of cases. Many of 
the workers are boys or even young girls. About 
all this work has in common with the making of 


cases is that it has to do with musical instru¬ 
ments. Somewhat the same thing may be said 
about the making of phonographs. The phono¬ 
graph is, of course, a musical instrument, but 
the wood work involved is simply cabinet work 
and is as closely related to furniture making or 
to other cabinet work as it is to piano making. 
However, the phonograph workers belong to the 
same union as do the piano workers. 

Miscellaneous Wood Manufactures 

Wood Carving and Wood Turning .—Wood carv¬ 
ing and wood turning as found in New York City 
are primarily industries of the subsidiary type 
which cater to other wood-working industries or 
make highly specialized articles for a limited trade. 
The plants are small and much of the work is 
done by hand. As traditionally carried on, carv¬ 
ing is a highly skilled craft or art rather than an 
industrial process. 

The wood-carving industry has suffered many 
ups and downs in the past but it seems now to 
be at its lowest ebb. The Golden Age of the 
wood carvers was the period of the eighteen- 
eighties and nineties, when the homes of the 
wealthy were built with elaborate and ornate 
carved decorations. The recent decline is at¬ 
tributed to a lack of demand for carving and to 
a shortage of trained workers. The lack of de¬ 
mand is explained partly by a change in taste 
and partly by the fact that genuine hand carving 
is expensive. The number of workers is limited 
by the union and there are almost no appren¬ 
tices at the present time. It has been estimated 
by men long in the industry that there were 
around 1890 as many as 3,000 carvers in the 
city and it was not uncommon to find as many 
as ten apprentices in a shop. Besides lack of 
demand on the part of the wealthy, a further 
factor in the present depressed state of the 
industry is the rise of cheap machine work in the 
phonograph factories. This type of work is no 
substitute for really artistic wood carving but it 
does serve fairly well for the more showy com¬ 
mercial furniture. There is an increasing use of 
machinery in the wood carving industry and 
lately the boring machines have been enlarged 
so that they can do work faster than ever. All 
of the carvers now use machines in some measure. 


FACTORS DETERMINING LOCATION OF PLANTS IN WOOD INDUSTRIES 43 


There are three fairly well defined grades of 
carving done in New York: first, the very high 
class work done almost entirely by hand; second, 
the cheaper grade of commercial carving done 
principally by machinery; and, third, the lower 
grade of finishing and hand-carving done in the 
tenements of the lower East Side. In high-grade 
work little machinery is used so that the carving 
can be carried on anywhere. Carving of the 
best grade requires long training and, if original 
designs are used, very considerable artistic 
ability. It is a matter of principle with consci¬ 
entious carvers of the old school to avoid monot¬ 
ony of design and failure to avoid monotony is the 
major shortcoming of the machine-made product. 

The work done in the city at the present time 
falls into three principal classes: (1) architectural 
wood work; (2) carved furniture and cabinet 
work; and, (3) specially designed novelties. In 
recent years most of the work for churches, such 
as fine altars, pulpits, and church decorations, 
has been done in Europe. European labor is 
cheaper and carving done abroad is regarded as 
superior to that done in America. 

The wood carvers ordinarily work for the dec¬ 
orators rather than for the architects. The decor¬ 
ators take a contract to decorate a house and then 
sublet the carving to the lowest bidder. As a re¬ 
sult the carvers work irregularly and during the 
time when they do not have contracts they are 
forced to work for stock in hope of future sales. 

Most of the wood carvers in New York learned 
their craft in Europe. The older carvers were 
frequently German. Now all nationalities are 
found, but Germans, Italians, and Poles prepon¬ 
derate. 

The wood-carving industry formerly centered 
in Lower Manhattan in the neighborhood of 
Grand Street. It is difficult to get satisfac¬ 
tory space. Carvers cannot pay high rents 
because their business is done on a narrow margin 
of profit. In order to succeed in securing con¬ 
tracts for high-class decorating, it is necessary 
to be as near as possible to the fashionable deco¬ 
rators, and as a result most of the high-class 
carvers are located on the middle East Side as 
near Fifth Avenue as they can afford to locate. 
The aggregate space demands of the industry are 
unimportant. 


New York is not an important center in the 
production of turned wood and of other kinds of 
woodwork of a similar nature, but it is a very 
important distributing center. Much of the 
woodwork that is distributed from New York is 
made in New England, in Michigan, in Wis¬ 
consin, and in the Northwest. The wood-work¬ 
ers in New York City who do turning also, as a 
rule, do general cabinet work. The turning is 
nearly all done by hand or on semi-automatic 
machines and much of it is for furniture manu¬ 
facturers. There is very little of the purely 
automatic work characteristic of the production 
of small articles, such as handles for cutlery. 
There are two well-defined busy seasons with 
corresponding slack seasons. The busy seasons 
are in preparation for the Christmas trade and 
for the spring trade. During most of the year, 
the plants are at fifty to seventy-five per cent of 
their capacity, but during the short busy seasons 
they have all that they can do and work over¬ 
time. 

Besides the work which is done for the furni¬ 
ture manufacturers, the wood turners now do 
considerable business in the production of fancy 
turned articles, such as floor lamps, table lamps, 
candlesticks, smoking stands and various other 
wood novelties. The demand for radio instru-. 
ments helped the wood turners through a very 
critical period during the depression of 1920. 
Much of the production of radio supplies has 
since left New York and gone to New England 
where there are better facilities for standardized 
quantity production. 

As in the case of the furniture and wood-carv¬ 
ing industries, the center of the wood-work¬ 
ing and wood-turning industry was formerly in 
the neighborhood of Baxter and Grand Streets. 
Some of the work is still done in this part of the 
city, but other centers have developed. One is 
between First and Second Avenues near 20th 
Street, another near Fifth and Lewis Streets, and 
there are scattered establishments elsewhere in 
Manhattan, in Brooklyn, and in the Bronx. 

The major influence forcing wood workers to 
leave the down town district was scarcity of 
space and high rentals. The wood turners in New 
York exist primarily to serve other indus¬ 
tries and they find it advantageous to be located 


44 


THE WOOD INDUSTRIES IN NEW YORK AND ITS ENVIRONS 


in the neighborhood of other wood-working in¬ 
dustries. 

Jewelry Boxes .—Another type of wood indus¬ 
try found in New York is the manufacture of 
jewelry display boxes and dental-instrument 
show-cases. The number of establishments en¬ 
gaged in this class of work is not large, but this 
city is an important market and some local con¬ 
cerns do a nation-wide business. 

A brief description and history of a plant now 
located on West 45th Street, Manhattan, may 
be taken as fairly typical of the industry. This 
concern was established twenty-six years ago on 
Pearl Street, a location which had the advantage 
of being close to both the jewelry center and the 
wood-working center of the city. Here the estab¬ 
lishment remained for some fifteen years when it 
was removed to the Bush Terminal in order to 
secure more adequate space. During the war 
the demand for the products manufactured by 
the firm was so slight that business was sus¬ 
pended. After the war it resumed at Spring 
Valley, New York. This location did not prove 
satisfactory and the plant moved to its pres¬ 
ent location on West 45th Street where it now 
occupies the third floor of a brick building. 
In slack times not over six workers are employed, 
but when running at full capacity as many as 
thirty are required. Electrical power is used 
exclusively. The present location of this plant 
has the disadvantage of being in a district where 
skilled labor in this particular line is not plentiful. 
A more serious disadvantage is the remoteness of 
the plant from the jewelry center which makes it 
necessary to maintain a Fifth Avenue display 
room. The ideal location for such a plant in the 
opinion of this manufacturer would be on 34th 
Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. 

Study of industries such as this and of partic¬ 
ular plants such as the one just described, em¬ 
phasizes impressions gained from other sources. 
One is that, even in a great city which is becom¬ 
ing predominantly a marketing and commercial 
center, much small manufacturing of the service 
type will persist in the very shadow of the finan¬ 
cial and shopping centers. 

This is true even of industries such as wood¬ 
working which do not admit of shoulder-to- 
shoulder methods of production. A second im¬ 


pression shows how limited is the choice open to 
the small manufacturer in New York when deter¬ 
mining his location and necessary space require¬ 
ments. Often the price paid for the advantages 
of a metropolitan location is excessive and is 
accompanied by a lack of proper manufacturing 
facilities that in a less crowded area would be 
considered intolerable. 

Picture Frames .—Chicago and New York are 
the centers of the manufacture of frames for 
pictures and mirrors in the United States. In 
Chicago frames of a medium grade are manufac¬ 
tured on a quantity basis, while in New York 
greater emphasis is put upon quality. In some 
instances the molding from which the frames are 
cut is the product of planing mills located out¬ 
side the city. The industry as carried on in 
New York consists, then, of sawing the molding 
into frames, giving them an artistic finish, and 
of marketing them. It is essentially light manu¬ 
facturing of the service type and, in its space and 
transportation requirements, stands at the oppo¬ 
site pole from the lumber industry in general. 

The most important factors determining the 
location of the picture frame factories are a local 
market for the frames and a supply of skilled 
wood-workers with an artistic bent. New York 
has both these advantages and within the city 
the best locations are those which are near the 
picture stores and the shopping districts. Dis¬ 
play space is quite as important as manufactur¬ 
ing space, and proximity to Fifth Avenue is a 
distinct advantage. Freight transportation facil¬ 
ities are not important factors in determining 
the location of the picture frame factories, be¬ 
cause of the light weight of the raw materials 
used and the fact that so a large part of the prod¬ 
uct is marketed locally. Location near rapid 
transit lines is important because such location 
brings customers to the factories. 

One of the largest factories in the city engaged 
in the production of picture frames was estab¬ 
lished before the Civil War on 13th Street just 
west of Fifth Avenue. It followed a shop of 
similar character which had been established on 
the same site in 1830. The factory now employs 
a maximum of 125 workers, practically all of 
whom are Italians. Raw material is secured from 
local yards and little is kept in stock at any one 


FACTORS DETERMINING LOCATION OF PLANTS IN WOOD INDUSTRIES 


45 


time. As in many of the wood-working estab¬ 
lishments electric power is used. The combined 
floor space of factory and show rooms in this 
instance is 30,000 square feet. 

Another pioneer factory was established in 
Pell Street and moved from there forty years ago 
because of the incoming Chinese. It is now lo¬ 
cated west of Fifth Avenue on 36th Street. 
Thirty to forty Italians are employed and the 
factory occupies 10,000 square feet as compared 
with 18,000 for the sales rooms. Electric power 
is used and the raw materials are obtained 
from a molding factory in Connecticut. The 
output of the factory is of medium grade and 
about 30 per cent is sold outside the city. This 
company believes that New York manufacture 
adds selling prestige in the case of picture frames. 

A group of the smaller picture frame shops are 
located on Fulton Street and find this a satis¬ 
factory location because of the combination of 
reasonable rents and a good market. A factory of 
medium size was established in 1888 at 55 Vesey 
Street and ten years ago moved to its present 
location on Fulton Street in order to get a better 
location for marketing, and to take advantage of 
the lower rent. This concern occupies about 
7,000 square feet of space. 

Cooperage .—The cooperage industry is a local 
service industry which furnishes containers for 
manufacturers of other products. The different 
types of cooperage and the uses to which each is put 
are concisely stated in the following paragraph. 

“There are three recognized classes of cooper¬ 
age— tight, semi-tight, and slack. Tight cooper¬ 
age is designed to hold liquids. Slack cooperage 
is designed to hold such articles as sugar, flour, 
salt, cement, potatoes, apples, and other objects 
which do not require that the joints be water¬ 
tight. In semi-tight cooperage the joints are 
more closely filled than in slack, but not so 
closely fitted as in tight. This grade of cooperage 
is designed to hold such articles as butter, paste, 
and mincemeat. The output in all of these 
grades is declining. There are several causes of 
this decline, among which may be mentioned: 
first, the increasing cost, especially in tight 
cooperage, due to the diminishing supply of 
white oak, the most available wood for this grade 
of cooperage; second, the prohibition amend¬ 


ment lessening the demand; and third, the in¬ 
creasing use of substitutes.” 1 

The factors determining the location of cooper¬ 
age plants are local demand, space facilities, and 
transportation. Most of the cooperage estab¬ 
lishments are found in Brooklyn. There is a 
strong local demand in that section of the greater 
city and there is adequate space for manufactur¬ 
ing purposes. One of the most important cooper¬ 
age establishments in the city owes its existence 
to the demands of the sugar refineries. Since 
cooperage is bulky, the plant is located as near as 
possible to the refineries. The space require¬ 
ments for cooperage are out of all proportion to 
the value of the product. One cooperage estab¬ 
lishment which handles second-hand barrels and 
employs not over a dozen men, occupies one- 
fourth of an acre. This is obviously a use of 
space which would make the location of such a 
plant impossible in a district where rentals are 
high. 

The large cooperage establishment above re¬ 
ferred to employs about 500 unskilled workers 
on a space about 250 by 200 feet. This plant was 
established prior to 1850 and has remained in its 
present location. It has specialized in the pro¬ 
duction of sugar barrels, is in close proximity to 
the refineries and near good rail facilities. Raw 
materials are obtained by rail from the company’s 
own mills in Arkansas, Missouri, and South 
Carolina. The company has 200 feet of water 
frontage but no particular use is made of this 
since the lumber is brought in by rail. About 80 
per cent of the output is sold to the refinery next 
door and the other 20 per cent is marketed over 
the country at large. 

Cooperage plants are so dependent upon the 
refineries and other industries which they serve 
that they are not likely to move unless the 
refineries move. 

Auto Truck Bodies .—-The manufacturers of 
commercial auto truck bodies in New York City 
are the successors of the carriage manufacturers 
and wagon makers of an earlier period. In 
many instances the firms which formerly made 
and repaired wagons have adapted their business 
to the changed conditions and now make and 

1 United States Tariff Commission, Tariff Information 
Surveys, D-2, page 16. 


46 


THE WOOD INDUSTRIES IN NEW YORK AND ITS ENVIRONS 


repair truck bodies. There are no large estab¬ 
lishments in New York City which make stan¬ 
dardized truck bodies on a quantity basis. The 
New York manufacturers are engaged in what is 
distinctly a service type of industry, and manu¬ 
facture the truck bodies on order. 

Establishments of this type call for compara¬ 
tively low site values and proximity to prospec¬ 
tive customers. One manufacturer who has 
long been located on the upper East Side, ex¬ 
plained that he would lose his business if he were 
to move outside of Manhattan. The ordinary 
truck body manufacturer is bound to his cus¬ 
tomers like a blacksmith or a local carpenter. 

The work of the commercial auto body manu¬ 
facturer consists of wood-work, blacksmith work, 
and painting, the first named being most im¬ 
portant. There is a nuisance element in work of 
this kind and it is obvious that, even if the manu¬ 
facturer could afford an expensive location, he 
would be an undesirable neighbor in a residence 
or business section. 

An analysis of the list of membership of The 
Vehicle Manufacturers’ Association of New York 
City shows that the establishments in the in¬ 
dustry are found in certain sections of Brooklyn, 
and along the east and the middle west sides of 
Manhattan. Due to the character of the indus¬ 
try there seems to be little connection, in general, 
between the truck body industry and the auto¬ 
mobile industry. Considered as a local service 
industry, there is little reason to expect a notice¬ 
able change in the location or future space de¬ 
mands of the truck body dealers in New York. 

Canes and Umbrella Handles .—A minor in¬ 
dustry of the subsidiary type is the manufacture 
of canes and umbrella handles. It exists here 
because New York is an important center of the 
umbrella industry. Many of the umbrella manu¬ 
facturers also make handles, but the making of 
handles is regarded as a distinct industry. The 
largest single factories in the industry are located 
outside of New York, the largest factory being 
at Lancaster, Pennsylvania; but the greatest 
number of establishments and the greatest con¬ 
centration in the industry are found in New York. 
Few canes are made, and as most of these are 
used to dress shop windows, the demand for 
added supplies is never large. 


Few, if any, of the umbrella handle factories 
in New York have as many as twenty employes. 
The nearest approach to a concentration of the 
handle manufacturers is found in the Baxter 
Street area, where most of the umbrella manu¬ 
facturers were located before a northward move¬ 
ment began in the wake of the retail stores. 
Handle-making and umbrella-making in general 
is not a highly skilled craft but it is one in which 
the labor is relatively permanent and stable. In 
craftmanship there is a similarity between the 
making of handles and of smoking pipes. The 
handle makers are principally men but in the 
umbrella factories many of the workers are wo¬ 
men and girls. The employers of an earlier 
period were predominately Irish but most of 
them now are Jewish and many of the workers 
are Italian. 

From a marketing standpoint, the handle 
manufacturers have a distinct advantage from 
their New York location. There are two busy 
seasons in the umbrella trade, one in the autumn 
before Christmas, and the other in the spring 
beginning in February. The manufacturers 
buy the ribs and the rods which together con¬ 
stitute the base of the umbrella, and then buy 
the handles and the cloth and assemble the whole. 
Practically all the manufacturing is done on order 
and this helps to explain why the handle makers 
are so closely bound to the umbrella manufac¬ 
turers. In the sale of umbrellas there are no 
jobbers or other middlemen and the manufac¬ 
turers sell directly to the dealers. Both the 
umbrella manufacturers and the handle makers 
in New York are organized and realize that, 
while there may be few or no manufacturing 
advantages in concentration, there are distinct 
marketing advantages from being located close 
together. 

Cork .—The largest single establishment in the 
cork industry in the United States is located in 
Pennsylvania, but there is a larger number of 
establishments in New York than elsewhere. 
The cork is all imported and comes from the 
Iberian Peninsula, the greater part of it being 
brought from Portugal with a somewhat smaller 
amount from Spain. New York is the principal 
port of entry, with Philadelphia second. The 
raw cork is admitted into the United States 


FACTORS DETERMINING LOCATION OF PLANTS IN WOOD INDUSTRIES 47 


duty free, but a duty on cork manufactures pro¬ 
tects the American manufacturers against Euro¬ 
pean competition. If it were not for the protec¬ 
tion granted by the tariff, the American manu¬ 
facturers could not compete with the Spanish 
manufacturers who are near the source of raw 
material and who can employ much cheaper 
labor than is available in this country. 

The cork plants in New York City are nearly 
all in Brooklyn. They are found in the Bush 
Terminal region, in the Greenpoint section, and 
in other parts of the city. Cork is bulky and 
storage space is important. Fortunately it is 
possible to store the cork in yards out of doors 
without serious deterioration. This reduces the 
cost of storage. Since the cork comes to the 
manufacturers from the ocean freighters, access 
to the docks is important. For this reason the 
transportation facilities offered by the Bush 
Terminal make it an attractive location. One 
large organization, however, when faced with 
the problem of finding a suitable location, chose 
a site away from the waterfront because they 
were able to get adequate space accommodations 
and were assured of a labor supply. During the 
war when their business was large, they leased a 
waterfront location in order to have a place to 
unload their supplies, Ordinarily, however, this 
company, by means of motor trucks, and prompt 
lighterage service in case the ships do not dock in 
Brooklyn, is able to get prompt deliveries. 

Labor is a relatively more important factor in 
the determination of the location of the plants 
than it is in those wood-working industries which 
rely chiefly upon skilled labor. Most of the 
workers employed in the manufacture of bottle 
stoppers are unskilled and in recent years many 
labor-saving devices have been adopted which 
make it possible to use girls and women in place 
of men. This places the cork manufacturers in 
competition with each other and with other em¬ 
ployers of unskilled girl workers and makes the 
factor of an adequate labor supply a most im¬ 
portant one. In order to maintain the quality of 
product, New York manufacturers have found 
payment of a daily wage more satisfactory than 
piece-work payment. 

Lead Pencils— Most of the pencils used in the 
United States are produced in a few large plants 


located in New York and its environs. 1 The 
principal pencil factories located in New Jersey 
are in Hoboken and Jersey City, so that they fall 
well within the environs of New York. Besides 
these, the large pencil factories in New York are 
located on Greenpoint Avenue, Brooklyn, and at 
13th Street and East River, Manhattan. This 
city has been the center of the pencil industry 
for many years and there are no indications of 
any trend away from New York or of concentra¬ 
tion or movement within the city. The plants 
which do the bulk of the business are old and 
well established, and it must be remembered 
that the demand for pencils, while widespread, 
is satiable within recognized limits and that a 
few large plants are enough to supply the whole 
country. In the case of New York, the impetus 
of an early start has undoubtedly done much to 
hold the pencil industry in the city. The con¬ 
sumption of pencils in a given locality is directly 
in proportion to the size of the population and 
the amount of business carried on. A pencil 
manufacturer consequently gains advantages from 
a location in the midst of a large population. In 
addition to domestic consumption, American pen¬ 
cils are sold throughout the world. One of the 
largest firms in New York has estimated that ten 
per cent of its output was exported. Another 
New York company operates a subsidiary factory 
in London. New York has additional advantages 
for the pencil manufacturers in that the principal 
raw materials can be obtained in the local market. 
Cedar comes from the South and the West, graphite 
and brass are purchased in the local market, and 
rubber is bought in New Y ork or imported directly. 

Adequate space and abundant labor supply 
are requisites of first importance for the pencil 
factories. The factory located on Greenpoint 
Avenue, Brooklyn, covers two square blocks, 
four floors and basement, and employs approxi¬ 
mately 900 persons. The plant at East 13th 
Street and East River occupies about 32,000 
square feet of floor space and another lot 250 by 
250 feet. The large plant in Hoboken which 
employs 2,500 occupies a number of buildings, 
including one which is two blocks in length, one 

1 An historical sketch of the development of the pencil 
industry in the United States prior to 1900 is given in 
Twelfth Census of the United States, 1910, Volume X, Part 
IV, pp. 515-521. 


THE WOOD INDUSTRIES IN NEW YORK AND ITS ENVIRONS 


48 

block in width and three stories high, two ten 
story buildings, and a number of other buildings 
of different heights. The establishment also has 
a rail spur leading up to the shipping department. 

The pencil factories employ both men and 
women, but the majority of the employes are 
women and girls who operate the automatic 
machines by which the pencils are made. The 
labor does not have to be highly skilled but a 
considerable degree of alertness is required. 
Among the really skilled workers are the ma¬ 
chinists employed to care for the machinery. It 
is important that the pencil factories be located 
where a supply of unskilled women workers is 
available. 

Transportation is important, but not a dom¬ 
inant factor in the location of the pencil factories. 
In New York most supplies can be purchased 
locally. Rail transportation is of more impor¬ 
tance than water transportation in the distribu¬ 
tion of the finished product. A large proportion of 
the pencils are sent out by parcel post and express. 

Both steam and electric power are used in the 
New York pencil factories, one company re¬ 
porting an almost exclusive dependence upon 
electrical power while two other large establish¬ 
ments use both steam and electricity. 

The history of the changes in location on the 
part of the large representative firms cited above 
will show how they have solved the problem of 
location. The plant now located in Hoboken 
was founded there in 1860 and has not changed 
location. The plant now located on Greenpoint 
Avenue, Brooklyn, was at one time located in 
Manhattan on 42nd Street. In 1872 the factory 
on 42nd Street burned and as the company al¬ 
ready owned the Greenpoint location it moved 
its factory there. The large establishment at 
East 13th Street and East River was started in 
a small way in 1859 in Yonkers. By 1871 it had 
outgrown its facilities and this situation, coupled 
with the difficulty of obtaining adequate labor 
supply, caused it to move to its present location. 

Tobacco Pipes .—New York is the most im¬ 
portant center of pipe manufacturing in the 
United States, but there is no marked concentra¬ 
tion in the location of the pipe factories either in 
the United States as a whole or in New York that 
is comparable to the concentration that exists in 


Europe. Practically all European pipes are made 
in one city, St. Claude, in the Jura region of 
France, where there are several large pipe fac¬ 
tories and many small ones. The largest pipe 
factory in New York and in the whole of the 
United States is located in Richmond Hill, Long 
Island. This company formerly had its factory 
in Manhattan and moved to Richmond Hill 
about twenty years ago to secure cheaper and 
more adequate manufacturing space. Another 
important establishment has its location near 
the Brownsville section of Brooklyn. The ad¬ 
vantage found in this location is in the existence 
of a suitable labor supply in Brownsville. One 
fairly important factory is located on Southern 
Boulevard in the Bronx in the district where 
many piano factories are found. Other smaller 
factories are found in Brooklyn, in Jersey City, 
and in Jersey Heights. 

The most important factor in determining the 
location of pipe factories is, in the opinion of 
the manufacturers consulted, the labor supply. 
Instances are cited of factories that moved away 
from their labor supply and found it difficult to 
get workers in their new locations. This de¬ 
pendence upon labor supply, coupled with an 
aversion to moving, has tended to keep the pipe 
factories on their present sites. At present there 
seems to be no tendency towards a change in 
location. 

The labor employed in the pipe factories is 
approximately 75 per cent skilled and 25 per 
cent unskilled. The unskilled work can be 
learned in a few days but it requires as 
much as three years to attain proficiency in 
the skilled branch of the industry. Among the 
workers who live in Brownsville, the predomi¬ 
nating nationalities are Russian and Polish. 
There does not seem to be very much inter¬ 
change of labor with other industries. The two 
industries most closely related to the pipe in¬ 
dustry are cane and umbrella handle manufactur¬ 
ing and the making of wooden heels for women’s 
shoes. For less expensive pipes, direct labor 
costs and material costs are about the same, but 
for more expensive ones the labor cost is the 
greater and this exercises an important influence 
in determining the location of plants in particular 
parts of the city. 


FACTORS DETERMINING LOCATION OF PLANTS IN WOOD INDUSTRIES 49 


The advantage of a New York location is 
primarily that of being located in a large center 
of population where buyers come to select their 
goods. 

Reed and Rattan .—In the manufacture of fur¬ 
niture and baskets from rattan, reed, and willow, 
the number of plants in the entire country is not 
large, but some of the most important are found 
in New York. 

Rattan is the general trade name which is 
given to the long, trailing, tropical plants from 
which are obtained the familiar cane and reed 
used in the manufacture of furniture and baskets. 
The greater part of the rattan coming into the 
United States is imported from the Straits Settle¬ 
ments, China, the Philippines, and the Dutch 
East Indies. There are about 200 species of 
rattan with great variety in length and size of 
the stems. The bark of the rattan is split into 
strips and is known as "cane” and is very widely 
used in making seats for chairs, coverings for 
couches, and in the manufacture of trunks and 
suit cases. The removal of the cane leaves the 
softer inner portion of the stem which is known 
as “reed” and which has many uses in the manu¬ 
facture of furniture and of baskets of numerous 
kinds. The rattan is brought into the United 
States in the raw state, in the form of reeds and 
canes and also in the form of partly manufac¬ 
tured furniture and baskets. Baskets such as 
are used by florists are imported in an unfinished 
state from Germany, Austria, and Italy and are 
finished in the United States. 

The factors which seem to determine the loca¬ 
tion of rattan manufacturing plants in any partic¬ 
ular city in preference to other cities are proxim¬ 
ity to a port of entry, nearness to market, and a 
supply of skilled labor. Within the city the labor 
supply and the space requirements seem to be of 
primary importance. New York furnishes a good 
market for the goods produced from rattan be¬ 
cause of the large population of the city and be¬ 
cause many of the products belong in the luxury 
class. This is especially true of some of the 
smaller articles, such as floral baskets and fancy 
candy boxes. In the case of manufacturers 
specializing in floral baskets, it is important to be 
within easy reach of the florists and the shopping 
section of the city. 


One of the largest reed manufacturing plants 
in the city was founded over a century ago on 
its present site on Norman Avenue in Brooklyn 
as a shop for the manufacture from whalebone 
of umbrella ribs, whips, and stays for corsets 
and hoop skirts. When the whaling industry 
declined, a substitute for whale bone was 
sought and rattan was introduced into the United 
States by the father of the present proprietor 
of the business. At the present time chair 
cane and woven cane web are the principal 
products. 

Space requirements in the reed and cane indus¬ 
try are relatively large. The plant mentioned 
above occupies an area of 330 by 210 feet and has 
a building several stories in height. Another 
plant which was long one of the leading establish¬ 
ments of its kind in the city, occupied during its 
times of prosperity a building of nine floors of 
12,500 square feet each. At present it occupies 
but one floor. In times of prosperity over 80 
skilled workers were employed as contrasted with 
the six or eight now employed. 

One of the real problems of the reed manu¬ 
facturers is that of securing labor. The work is 
nearly all done by hand and long training and a 
high type of skilled craftsmanship are required. 
Artisans with a sense of the aesthetic and with 
creative ingenuity are most needed. Because of 
the high skill required, reed manufacturers find 
it difficult to compete with other industries pro¬ 
ducing substitute products by automatic proc¬ 
esses. In the case of the establishment last men¬ 
tioned, one employe has been with the firm 
forty-five years and still others, thirty-five and 
twenty-five years. This firm has shifted its 
location a number of times, since it was estab¬ 
lished at 55 Franklin Street in 1874. In less 
than a year, it had outgrown that location and 
moved to 104 West 18th Street. Six years later 
it moved to 120 West 19th Street because of the 
expiration of its lease on the old site. In 1890, it 
moved to 110 West 18th Street. In about 1907 
rent became high and the factory was moved to 
West 28th Street but the sales office was retained 
at 110 West 18th Street. This location on 28th 
Street was later bought by another firm and the 
factory was moved back to the sales office at 110 
West 18th Street. 


50 


THE WOOD INDUSTRIES IN NEW YORK AND ITS ENVIRONS 


That the reed and willow manufacturers have 
other difficulties besides those of securing labor 
is indicated in the reasons given for liquidation 
by a firm in the Greenpoint Section of Brooklyn, 
the members of which have decided to retire from 
business. They designate high rents, high labor 
costs and severe foreign competition which even 
a high tariff is not able to overcome. The rela¬ 


tively large space requirements of the industry 
are illustrated by the fact that this firm which 
employed forty employes occupied three floors 
of 10,000 square feet each. This is in marked 
contrast with the conditions in other lines of 
manufacturing, such as clothing or candy man¬ 
ufacturing. 


CONCLUSIONS 


The purpose of this section is to draw such 
tentative conclusions regarding the probable 
future development and space demands of the 
wood-working industries in New York and its 
environs as seem warranted by an analysis of 
the data collected. No precise predictions can 
be made, but an analysis of the material does dis¬ 
close some significant trends. It should be kept 
in mind in considering the factors which deter¬ 
mine the location of industries that, in addition 
to the obvious economic factors involved, there 
are other less obvious but no less real contribut¬ 
ing factors. Among such are the character of 
the population, the influence of an early start, 
the factor of chance location, the gregarious 
character of industry, the special inducements 
offered by particular communities, and last but 
not least inertia. 

There seems to be no ground for believing that 
as a group the wood-working industries in New 
York and its environs will ever be of more im¬ 
portance in relation to similar industries found 
elsewhere in the country than they are at pres¬ 
ent. Nor does it seem any more probable that 
they will gain in relative position among the 
manufacturing industries within the city and its 
environs. 

Particular industries within the group of in¬ 
dustries studied may develop more rapidly than 
others but at the present time not one of the 
important wood-working industries in the city is 
growing rapidly. Nor is there any industry 
among those studied in which plants now located 
outside the area are moving into the region em¬ 
braced by the Plan. Brief statements of con¬ 
clusions by zones and by industries are offered in 
the following paragraphs. 

Zone I (Manhattan South of 59th Street) 

The factory inspection records and data se¬ 
cured from other sources point to a decline in 
number of employes in this zone, accompanied 
by a slight increase in number of establishments. 
This of course indicates that establishments are 
becoming smaller and that the wood-working in¬ 
dustries most likely to remain in the zone are 


those in which small plants serve other industries 
or produce some highly specialized product, such 
as very high-grade furniture. From the stand¬ 
point of marketing, it is very desirable, then, 
that these plants remain near the shopping center 
of the city. Another factor, which at present 
tends to keep certain small manufacturing estab¬ 
lishments in Zone I, is the availability of obsoles¬ 
cent buildings located upon land which is in a 
stage of transition from one use to another, and 
which will eventually be occupied by new build¬ 
ings devoted to a different use. Such large wood¬ 
working plants as are found in Zone I are there, in 
most cases, because of long-time ownership of 
the factory site or for some special reason, such 
as accessibility to a labor supply of a particular 
kind. 

Zone II 

As explained in the introduction, Zone II in¬ 
cludes the territory immediately surrounding 
Zone I and lying roughly within a radius of 20 
miles from Manhattan south of 59th St. In recent 
years the principal growth in the wood-working 
industries of the area included in the Regional 
Plan of New York and Its Environs has been in 
Zone II. 

As shown in Diagram II 1 in the preceding 
section it is the development of Zone II which 
has determined the character of the develop¬ 
ment of the industries in the entire area. Such 
movement of the wood industries as has occurred 
has been a movement from Zone I to Zone II. 

Zone III 

In Zone III is included the territory within 
the scope of the plan that lies outside of Zone II. 
The establishments found in Zone III are of two 
kinds: first, a few large establishments which for 
various reasons have grown up in particular 
places, and second, the relatively small local 
wood-working establishments, such as the saw¬ 
mills arid furniture factories, which are likely to 
be found in any American town or city. Unless 

1 See page 20. 


51 


52 


THE WOOD INDUSTRIES IN NEW YORK AND ITS ENVIRONS 


drastic changes in transportation facilities or 
developments in other industries cause the 
growth of important new industrial centers, 
there is little reason to expect any significant 
change in the number or character of wood-work¬ 
ing industries in Zone III. 

Lumber and Planing-Mill Products 

It is certain that the large local demand for 
building materials will for a long time insure the 
continued existence of planing mills in or near 
the city. The present tendency is for such estab¬ 
lishments to concentrate in Brooklyn and Queens, 
but as these areas become more densely popu¬ 
lated, the plants will be forced to find addi¬ 
tional room for expansion elsewhere. If the 
development of transportation facilities, both 
water and rail, should lead to the growth in New 
Jersey of a district devoted to heavy manufac¬ 
turing, this would seem to be the logical place 
for the future development of the lumber in¬ 
dustry. 

Furniture and Cabinet Work 

At the present time there is a tendency for the 
furniture factories which produce regular lines of 
commercial furniture to locate in Brooklyn and 
Queens, and this development will probably 
continue. Special furniture of the highest grade 
much of which is now manufactured in Man¬ 
hattan in relatively small shops, will doubtless 
continue to be made there, chiefly because of the 
difficulty of separating the functions of fabrica¬ 
tion and of marketing. 

Store fixtures and refrigerators are manufac¬ 
tured in New York in limited quantities for three 
principal reasons: first, because of the large local 
demand; second, because of the high freight rates 
from points of manufacture to the east, which 


more than equalize production costs, and third, 
because of the existence of a supply of skilled 
labor in the city. In the case of store fixtures, 
the demand is a comparatively steady one and 
the local manufacturers do an important business 
in supplying the department stores and the chain- 
store organizations. The number of establish¬ 
ments producing goods of this kind is not large, 
but there is no indication that the industry will 
die out. 

Pianos and Other Musical Instruments 

Piano factories offer the most interesting in¬ 
stances of concentration found among the wood¬ 
working industries in the city. There is at pres¬ 
ent no evidence of a tendency’toward change of 
location among these factories. The group on 
the middle west side of Manhattan has stuck to 
present locations because advantages in trans¬ 
portation and labor outweigh the disadvan¬ 
tage of high rents. It is reasonable to infer 
that a time will come when this situation 
will be reversed and a shift of location will 
become unavoidable. There is no indication 
that the piano factories in either the Bronx 
or Queens will find it necessary to change their 
locations. The development of Queens as a 
center, important in the piano manufacturing 
industry to a degree comparable to its importance 
in other wood-working industries, depends pri¬ 
marily upon the development of rapid-transit 
facilities and of housing accommodations. 

All Other Wood Manufactures 

Among these industries there is no observable 
trend toward migration either into or out of the 
area, and within the region there is no indication 
of progress in concentration of such industries. 


REGIONAL PLAN OF NEW YORK 
AND ITS ENVIRONS 

ECONOMIC AND INDUSTRIAL SURVEY 

Robert Murray Haig, Director 
Roswell C. McCrea, Consultant 


Economic Series 

Dealing with Present Trends and Probable Future Developments in Land Utilization 

in the Metropolitan Area 

Monograph Number One 

THE CHEMICAL INDUSTRY, by Mabel Newcomer. (49 pages, 7 maps.) 

Price $1.00 Net 

Monograph Number Two 

THE METAL INDUSTRY, by Vincent W. Lanfear. (49 pages, 6 maps.) 

Price 75 cents Net 

Monograph Number Three 

THE FOOD MANUFACTURING INDUSTRIES, by Faith M. Williams. 

(62 pages, 6 maps, 1 graph.) Price 75 cents Net 

Monograph Number Four 

THE WOOD INDUSTRIES, by Mark C. Mills. (53 pages, 3 diagrams.) 

Price 75 cents Net 


The following are in preparation: 

Monograph Number Five 

THE TOBACCO PRODUCTS INDUSTRY, by Lucy Winsor Killough 

Monograph Number Six 
THE PRINTING INDUSTRY, by A. F. Hinrichs 

Monograph Number Seven 
THE MEN’S WEAR INDUSTRY, by B. M. Selekman 

Monograph Number Eight 

THE WOMEN’S GARMENT INDUSTRY, by Henriette R. Walter 

Monograph Number Nine 
THE TEXTILE INDUSTRY, by W. J. Couper 

Monograph Number Ten 
THE FINANCIAL DISTRICT, by R. W. Roby 

Monograph Number Eleven 
THE WHOLESALE MARKETS, by George Filipetti 

Monograph Number Twelve 
THE RETAIL SHOPPING DISTRICT, by L. M. Orton 


(general ^Volume 

SOME ECONOMIC ASPECTS OF THE REGIONAL PLAN OF NEW YORK 
AND ITS ENVIRONS, by Robert Murray Haig and Roswell C. McCrea. 
In Preparation. To be published October 1 , 1924 

Order from, 

REGIONAL PLAN OF NEW YORK AND ITS ENVIRONS 

130 East 22d Street, New York 






















